this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Summary

Mass firings at the IRS under the Trump administration threaten ongoing audits of wealthy individuals and corporations, potentially leading to millions in lost tax revenue.

The cuts primarily impacted employees in the Large Business & International Division, many of whom had extensive tax expertise.

With fewer agents and specialists, complex cases may be prematurely closed, undermining enforcement against high-end tax evasion.

Critics warn this weakens IRS oversight and emboldens tax avoidance among the ultrawealthy.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Why wouldn't they retaliate by specifically prioritizing the wealthy?

If they're crunched on time wouldn't they focus on the highest value accounts?

[–] finitebanjo 1 points 50 minutes ago

TLDR: They are prioritizing the wealthy. They simply can't afford to audit them without staff and funds to do so. They only audit if doing so is profitable for the government.


They did. They have been targeting the wealthy for years. It has been all over the news.

Problem is, court cases are expensive, running audits are more expensive based on the scale of the assets involved.

The IRS always makes additional money back based on every dollar of funding given to them but Republicans always defund the IRS. Here is an article about it from the end of the last Trump Admin LINK HERE

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Turns out they only have enough to audit the poor and middle class.

[–] finitebanjo 2 points 48 minutes ago

Actually, they have so few staff on hand that it isn't economic to audit the poor. You can expect them to never audit you unlesd they think they can make 20-30k out of it.

[–] ZILtoid1991 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Correction: to harass people that oppose the system with fraudulent tax audits.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

They are going after the people who don't have armies of lawyers to slow the process down...easy pickings

[–] Belkor 10 points 12 hours ago

So much corruption under this convicted felon president.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 14 hours ago

Thank goodness! The eternally suffering oligarchs will finally get a break from all the riff raff harassment

[–] DarkFuture 38 points 18 hours ago

Friendly reminder that Joe Biden increased resources to the IRS and they recouped billions from wealthy tax cheats.

But he was too old, so we went with an old rapist felon traitor instead.

[–] Sanctus 21 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Fucken sick of this blatant manipulation by the wealthy. The IRS is our fucken money maker.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 18 hours ago

Let's rename it to "Accounts Receivable" and really run this country like a business.

[–] inclementimmigrant 35 points 21 hours ago

I would say "why don't they just focus on rich people and not audit the other 90% of Americans." But we already know the answer to that one no matter who's in charge.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 18 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 154 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Gee, that almost sounds like it was intentional.

[–] Eatspancakes84 2 points 2 hours ago

The only thing that’s incorrect about this article is that they talk about millions in lost revenue, when the effect will certainly be in the billion if not trillion dollar range.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not even subtle about it any more.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago

They weren't subtle to begin with.

[–] Chainweasel 20 points 21 hours ago (5 children)

It doesn't make sense to me because there are fewer ultra wealthy people in America than there are poor people.
so with staff getting cut in half, you'd think it would be better to focus on the smaller group.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The rich have more assets and income sources and have staff who do a bunch of financial chicanery to try to hide their tax evasion. Auditing the rich requires significantly more work than the poor.

These decisions are not about doing what makes sense. The IRS is a revenue generator. Spending money on the IRS brings in significantly more money in unpaid taxes than it costs.

The goal is not to do what's best for the government's budget. Its really about ensuring that their criminal friends can continue to get away with it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

but the payback from auditing the rich and finding cheats is way more than the few cents per poor.

[–] jacksilver 3 points 18 hours ago

It's high risk/high reward, vs low risk/low reward for lower income households. However I'm sure there are things like qoutas, etc. that push auditors to go after the easy wins.

Not to mention you loose some big cases against wealthy people cause they have a lot of money, and they come after your job or make the IRS look ineffective.

[–] bitjunkie 8 points 18 hours ago

Smaller group with more to pay. It's a no-brainer if you're acting in good faith and not a complete moron. So obviously not what the current administration is going to do.

[–] capital_sniff 3 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

This is just the continued pushing of the tax burden onto the middle class. Which really got started good under Reagan. I think this is just the result of the uneducated GOP supporters winning this election. Now it is just a constant flood of them having no idea how government functions while ruining stuff for the rest of society,

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

And low info,.plus bigotry too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

But they're winning! And fucking over "the libs" at the same time!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 20 hours ago

I can only assume it's because rich people's audits are highly complex

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[–] credo 39 points 1 day ago

Retail Store CEO:

We will save money by firing all the cashiers!

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That kind of seems like the opposite of efficiency

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 day ago

Almost like efficiency was never the point.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

Makes it more efficient for the wealthy when finding ways to avoid paying tax.

[–] Bieren 9 points 19 hours ago

Thank goodness. Those poor billionaires having to suffer with taxes and things like a pleb. Disrespectful. I bet no one has even publicly thanked them for being rich today.

[–] CritFail 87 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

They should have cut all IRS investigations except the wealthy.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 day ago

For every dollar spent on IRS audits for middle America, they get about a dollar back in recovered revenue. For every dollar spent on auditing wealthy Americans, they get about twelve dollars back in recovered revenue. I don't think these cuts are intended to help balance the budget.

[–] grue 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Why would they do exactly the opposite of their goal?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The rest of us are mostly automated. Checking your return against a W2 and a couple of bank 1099s is easy.

Chasing down tax dodging through a web of pass through entities is not.

[–] CritFail 5 points 21 hours ago

Fair point, but potential returns are massive, and if they were targeting likely evaders , they could compound the money spent on manual checks (a list of high ranking Republican members might be a good place to start)

[–] Litebit 16 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Sue Trump and Elon for the illegal firing now before it is too late.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The Helmsley Doctrine (“only the little people pay taxes”) is now law

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[–] TheProtagonist 9 points 21 hours ago

Surprised Pikachu Face...

[–] PearOfDees69 30 points 1 day ago (3 children)

we the poor are not a fucking bank for these lazy bastards that just keep taking all our shit for their own personal financial gain.. And they'll keep taking and taking if we keep letting them, and we've been over the limit for some time already It's past due to push them off of us

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago

And yet, Republicans have been steadily making gains with the working class. With this past election they are now the dominant party for working class voters. It comes down to two things. American voters are deeply ignorant and the Democratic party is pathetically weak and out of touch.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

we the poor are not a fucking bank for these lazy bastards that just keep taking all our shit for their own personal financial gain

Capitalism is a trickle-up system, so yes, that is exactly what you are.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago

Less of a bank, and more like livestock. And you've seen how they treat other forms of livestock.

[–] someguy3 3 points 17 hours ago

This is what you voted for protest non voters! Congratulations!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Geez gosh golly!

I can't believe stuff like this happening under a Trump presidency ! Is it actually possible Trump wants good things to happen to the wealthy and nobody else!

Not possible! I refuse to believe it!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

Clearly, it was Hunter Biden's intern's emails about a tan suit.

[–] aesthelete 2 points 17 hours ago

Exactly the point.

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