Article Summary –
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, endorsed by President Joe Biden, allocated funds to modernize the IRS and enhance efforts to ensure wealthy individuals earning over $400,000 annually pay their due taxes, resulting in the collection of over $1 billion in past-due revenue. Democrats supported the act, while Republicans opposed it, falsely claiming it would create an army of armed agents targeting middle-class families, a claim debunked by CNN. The Treasury Department and IRS estimate that these enforcement efforts could yield $851 billion by 2034.
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allocated funds to modernize the Internal Revenue Service, enhancing its ability to pursue wealthy individuals earning over $400,000 annually who evade taxes. This initiative is already showing significant results.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS reported on July 11 that their efforts to recover overdue taxes from high earners have resulted in over $1 billion collected.
To put this in perspective, $1 billion could cover the cost of the federal program for free and low-cost school meals for two weeks.
It could also fund the operation of the National Park Service for over three months.
Additionally, it would cover more than half of Pennsylvania’s $1.76 billion bridge repair funding over five years, as outlined in Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Democratic U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle, Matt Cartwright, Madeleine Dean, Dwight Evans, Chrissy Houlahan, Mary Gay Scanlon, and Susan Wild supported the Inflation Reduction Act. However, Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Lloyd Smucker, and Glenn Thompson opposed it.
Republicans falsely claimed the law would create an army of armed agents to target working families. “The reconciliation bill coming to the House Floor tomorrow adds $80 billion to the IRS – nearly six times the agency’s current annual budget – and adds 87,000 new IRS enforcement personnel to pursue taxpayers, including the middle class,” tweeted Fitzpatrick in August 2022.
CNN debunked this claim in January 2023, clarifying that while funds could enable hiring up to 86,952 full-time employees over a decade, not all would be agents, and many would replace the 52,000 expected to retire by 2028.
In January 2023, the eight representatives voted for a bill to rescind the IRS modernization funds.
A February analysis by the IRS and Treasury Department estimated that these efforts could yield $851 billion by 2034.
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