Surely a strong contender for everyone's least favorite time of year — tax season in the US is fast approaching.
Filing the paperwork is enough of a headache, but nothing is as stressful as getting that letter from the IRS telling you that you're being audited, just to check everything was reported correctly — which it often wasn't.
One big number
The head of the IRS estimates that the US government is missing out on some $1 trillion due to unpaid taxes every year. That's just shy of $4,000 for every adult in the country — and the IRS doesn't have the resources to find the missing money.
Since 2010 the IRS has seen its headcount dwindle, while the number of US taxpayers has gone up. That's meant fewer resources for auditing — which has been particularly apparent at the high-income end of the spectrum. Data from TRACIRS shows that more than 617,000 lucky folks reported more than $1 million in income in 2021, but just 13,725 of them were audited, way down on the ~41,000 that got checked out in 2012.
Go deeper: The IRS Is Struggling to Keep Up—And That’s Bad For Everyone (Time).
