He was responding to questions about President Donald Trump’s 2021 budget request and disparities between audit rates on lower- and higher-income taxpayers.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) said 30 percent of taxpayers at the top of the income scale were audited about a decade ago but just 7 percent of them faced audits in 2018. Meanwhile, those at the low end, particularly taxpayers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, now account for 39 percent of all audits, she said.
Chu urged Mnuchin to ensure that new auditors whom the IRS would hire under the proposed budget focus on the wealthy.
In addition to $12 billion in funding for the IRS for 2021, the budget called for an additional $400 million, called a cap adjustment, to “fund new and continuing investments in expanding and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the IRS’s tax enforcement program.”
Current-year funding for the IRS totals $11.5 billion.
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/03/mnuchin-irs-boost-audits-wealthy-119719
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