Government “Shutdown” Forces IRS To Lay Off Most of Its People
政府の「閉鎖」がIRSにその大部分の人々を解雇させる
Tax preparation firm Bacon & Gendreau informed its clients on December 28 that, due to the so-called government shutdown, “the IRS has furloughed all but 12% of its employees across the country.” Because of that, the IRS “will continue to process electronically filed and paper returns with payments” but they “will not issue any refunds.” In addition the agency “will not perform audits or process returns requiring further examination.”
On the surface this should give their clients some comfort that, for the time being at least, they won’t be getting that dreaded notice in the mail that a previously-filed tax return is being audited. However, said Bacon & Gendreau, those layoffs don’t affect “essential employees such as IRS law enforcement agents.”
As The New American reported last month, due to budget cuts the IRS now employs about 24,000 fewer full-time agents than it did back in 2010, down to a measly 76,000 instead of its usual and customary complement of 100,000 agents. Most of those cuts — 17,000 of them — came from the law-enforcement arm.
This, according to the liberal investigative group ProPublica, is a travesty of the first order. The opening of its 18-page special report “How the IRS Was Gutted” issued in December, gave it all away: “An eight-year campaign to slash the agency’s budget has left it understaffed, hamstrung, and operating with archaic equipment. The result: billions less to fund the government. That’s good news for corporations and the wealthy.”
The rest of ProPublica’s exposé of the challenges faced by the federal government’s tax-collection arm focused on the loss of revenues that the federal government has suffered as the agency’s budget, its staffing, and its IT have been repeatedly cut, mostly by Republicans. According to ProPublica, the IRS is in a state of “collapse,” a “bureaucracy on life support” that costs the federal government “at least $18 billion every year, but the true cost could easily run tens of billions of dollars higher.”
Putting those alleged losses into perspective, the federal government’s maw consumes more than $4 trillion of taxpayer funds every year, so the report is talking about alleged losses that are merely rounding errors in the grand scheme of things.
But, said ProPublica, those are big bucks and those “losses” are likely to get bigger as the agency gets smaller: “The cuts are depleting the staff members who help ensure that taxpayers pay what they owe.” Notice please that the IRS, according to the investigative outfit, just wants to “help” taxpayers, suggesting that the agency is more like a librarian serving its cardholders seeking advice on a current book on the best-seller list. “As of last year, the IRS had 9,510 auditors. That’s down a third from 2010.” And a lot of those still working are likely to take early retirement next year: “Almost a third of its remaining employees will be eligible to retire in the next year, and with morale plummeting, many of them will.”
As a result, the IRS is being forced to stop “pursuing” those taxpayers who failed to file, or who filed but didn’t enclose a check for their tax liability. Wept ProPublica, “New investigations of ‘nonfilers,’ as they’re called, dropped from 2.4 million in 2011 to 362,000 last year,” leaving on the table “at least $3 billion.” What’s worse, unless the IRS steps up its collection efforts, those tax liabilities disappear after 10 years: “Tax obligations expire after 10 years if the IRS doesn’t pursue [there’s that word again] them.” Furthermore, said the investigative firm, “the IRS’ ability to investigate criminals has atrophied.”
ProPublica cried that all of this is removing the fear of the IRS from the taxpayer, admitting indirectly that it’s that fear that drives many to file to keep from being audited, or worse. Said the outfit, “For the country’s largest corporations, the danger of being hit with a billion-dollar tax bill has greatly diminished. For the rich … the IRS has become less and less of a force to be feared.”
Which brings us to this question: What about the criminals in the employ of the IRS? What about their crimes? The New American reminded its readers of the crimes committed at the very top of the agency:
Think Lois Lerner. Think John Koskinen. It was Lerner who directed the branch of the agency that targeted conservative groups seeking tax exemption. It was Koskinen who took over the agency just after the scandal was made public and hid Lerner’s e-mails, destroyed them, and then lied about it to Congress. Impeachment papers were prepared by the House Oversight Committee, which accused him of failing to prevent the destruction of evidence in allowing the erasure of backup tapes containing thousands of e-mails written by Lerner, and of lying to Congress. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the committee chairman, said that Koskinen “failed to comply with a congressionally issued subpoena, documents were destroyed on his watch, and the public was consistently misled.”
Neither of these miscreants was ever charged, convicted, or sentenced, and today they remain free to enjoy their retirement pensions from the government.
What about the crimes being committed by those on the frontlines, “pursuing” taxpayers who “fear” the agency and its enforcers? What about the raid by IRS enforcers on Mountain Pure Water Bottling Company and Duncan Outdoors, Inc.? What about the raid on Gibson Guitar? A reenactment of the raid on Mountain Pure Water was developed by Jan Morgan of JanMorganMedia,which can be seen here.
That reenactment was mild compared to the real experience, according to the company’s president. As Breitbart reported, the president told us “that it was even worse than depicted on the video. He says he was cursed at, spat on, and bullied in such an egregious fashion, he felt like they were trying to provoke him to react violently. His son … the General Manager, had a loaded gun pointed to his face.” Said Morgan: “This documentary is not about the guilt or innocence of the citizens involved. It is about the increasing number of unconstitutional, paramilitary, gestapo style raid tactics involving … agencies of the federal government.”
The amounts being “lost” to the federal government due to the current “shutdown” are penny-ante compared to the overall federal budget. They fade into insignificance in light of unconstitutional abuses the agency has used in its “pursuit” of taxpayers who “fear” the agency’s enforcers.
For taxpayers, the government shutdown represents a welcome — if only temporary — respite from “fear” of the agency “pursuing” them. May the shutdown continue!
Image: Pgiam via iStock / Getty Images Plus
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at badelmann@thenewamerican.com.
＝～＝ Google翻訳 ＝～＝
税務準備会社のBacon＆Gendreauは12月28日、いわゆる政府の閉鎖により、「IRSは全国の従業員の12％を除く全員を殺害した」と顧客に伝えた。電子的に提出された書類と紙の返品を支払いで処理することはできますが、「払い戻しはしません」。
表面的には、これは、少なくとも当分の間、以前に提出された納税申告書が監査されているというその恐ろしい通知を得ることができないという、顧客にいくらかの安心感を与えるはずです。しかし、これらの一時解雇は「IRS法執行機関のような不可欠な従業員」には影響しないとBacon＆Gendreauは述べた。
先月ニューアメリカンが報じたように、予算削減のため、IRSは現在、2010年に比べて約24,000人少ないフルタイムエージェントを使用していました。これらのカットの大部分 - 17,000個 - は法執行機関によるものです。
これは、リベラルな調査グループProPublicaによれば、最初の注文の悲劇です。 12月に発行された18ページの特別レポート「How IRS is gutted」の開幕は、それをすべて終わらせた。「機関の予算を削減するための8年間のキャンペーンは、それを不十分、ハムストロン、そして古風な機器で操作した。その結果、政府に資金を提供するための数十億ドルの削減。それは、企業にとっても裕福な人々にとっても朗報です。」
連邦政府の徴税部門が直面している課題に対するProPublicaのその他の課題は、連邦政府が政府機関の予算、人員配置、およびITを繰り返して、ほとんど共和党員によって削減されてきた収入の損失に焦点が当てられていました。 ProPublicaによると、IRSは「崩壊」、「連邦政府には少なくとも毎年180億ドルの費用がかかる生活支援の官僚主義」の状態にあるが、真の費用は容易に数千億ドルも上がる可能性がある。
これらの損失の可能性を視野に入れてみると、連邦政府の支柱は毎年4兆ドル以上の納税者の資金を消費しているので、この報告書は損失の疑いのあるものについて話しています。
しかし、ProPublicaによると、これらは大金であり、これらの「損失」は政府機関が小さくなるにつれて大きくなる可能性がある。「減税は納税者が彼らの借金を支払うことを保証する手助けをするスタッフを枯渇させている」。調査機関によると、ただ納税者を「助ける」ことを望み、その機関は、ベストセラーリストに載っている現在の本についてのアドバイスを求めてそのカード保有者に仕える司書のようなものであることを示唆している。昨年現在、IRSには9,510人の監査人がいました。そして、まだ働いている人の多くは来年早々に定年退職する可能性が高いです。「残りの従業員のほぼ3分の1が来年に退職する資格を持ち、士気が低下しているため、その多くが意志。"
その結果、IRSは、申告しなかった、または申告したが納税義務の小切手を同封しなかった納税者の「追求」をやめることを余儀なくされています。 Wept ProPublicaは、「非申告者」と呼ばれる新しい調査は、2011年の240万人から昨年は362,000人に減少し、「少なくとも30億ドル」と表に残しています。 「IRSが追求しないと10年後に税金の債務は失効する」とさらに調査会社は述べた。「IRSの犯罪者捜査能力は萎縮している。 」
ProPublicaは、これらすべてが納税者からIRSの恐れを取り除いていることを叫びました。 「国の最大の企業にとって、10億ドルの税金請求に見舞われる危険性は大幅に減少しました。金持ちのために…IRSは恐れられる力がますます少なくなっています。」
これは私たちにこの質問をもたらします：IRSの使用の犯罪者はどうですか？彼らの犯罪はどうですか？ニューアメリカンは、同局の最上位で行われた犯罪について読者に思い出させた。
ロイスラーナーを考えてください。ジョンコスキネンと思います。免税を求めている保守派グループを標的にしたのは、機関の支部を指揮したLernerでした。スキャンダルが公表されてLernerの電子メールを隠し、それを議会に嘘をついた直後に機関を引き継いだのはKoskinenでした。弾劾文書はHouse Oversight Committeeによって作成され、Lernerによって書かれた何千もの電子メールを含むバックアップテープの消去を許可したことや、議会に嘘をついたことによる証拠の破壊を防止できなかったと彼は非難した。委員長のJason Chaffetz（R-Utah）は、「Koskinenは議会で出された召喚令状に従わなかった。文書は彼の監視下で破棄され、大衆は誤解され続けた」と述べた。
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