Is America becoming a nation of tax cheats? More to the point, is the US Government letting that happen?
As part of the Tea Party inspired deal hammered out in Congress last week to avoid a shutdown, it was agreed that there would be a ban on hiring more IRS agents.
How unfortunate with a US Government Accountability Office report showing that there was a $330 billion shortfall in taxes collected in America last year. Lawmakers looking to bolster the nation's finances may want to consider withholding US passports from people with unpaid tax bills, says the report. They wouldn't be suggesting that if there weren't a lot of people in the US now refusing to pay tax.
The report in detail reveals that many of the tax evaders had "substantial personal assets-including multimillion dollar homes and luxury cars."
"For example, one passport recipient purchased a house for about $2 million and investment property for about $1.5 million while the recipient owed over $1 million in federal taxes. Another passport recipient owned luxury vehicles and gambled millions of dollars while owing about $47 million in taxes. This recipient received multimillion dollars in federal tax refunds to support this lifestyle until IRS discovered the tax debts in a later examination."
The report makes it clear that the US can't afford to cut back on tax collection. "As federal deficits continue to mount, the federal government has a vital interest in efficiently and effectively collecting the billions of dollars of taxes owed under current law,'' the report says.
no comment untill now