Pascrell Demands Answers on IRS Pursuit of Rich Tax Cheats

Oversight chairman continues push for tax fairness

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, has today written to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig demanding information and answers on the IRS’s pursuit of wealthy tax scofflaws.

“I write to request information on the current Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement programs that address Federal tax law noncompliance by high-income individual taxpayers,” Chairman Pascrell writes, before requesting lists of IRS examination and collection programs undertaken to address underreporting, nonfiling, tax fraud, and underpayment by high-income individual taxpayers by no later than March 17, 2021.

Pascrell’s letter comes on the heels of reports that the IRS systematically targets working class and poor Americans for audits while letting wealthY tax cheats off scot-free.

Chairman Pascrell has made tax fairness and IRS reform top priorities for his panel. Last week, Pascrell and full committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA-01) raised alarm bells on the slow start to the tax season, while separately, the Democratic Subcommittee members urged the IRS to delay the filing deadline. On February 19, Pascrell and Neal also again called on the IRS to stop sending stressful false notices to hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, calling the repeated mistaken notices “a massive failure of leadership at the highest level.”

The text of Chairman Pascrell’s latest letter to the IRS Commissioner is provided below.

February 26, 2021

The Honorable Charles P. Rettig

Commissioner

Internal Revenue Service

1111 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20224

Dear Commissioner Rettig,

I write to request information on the current Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement programs that address Federal tax law noncompliance by high-income individual taxpayers.  As you know, I remain very interested in ensuring fair and balanced enforcement of our tax laws.

So that the Subcommittee on Oversight can better understand how the IRS enforces the tax laws for high-income individual taxpayers, please provide the following in writing by March 17, 2021:

1. A list of all examination and collection programs (including campaigns and initiatives) undertaken since 2018 to address underreporting, nonfiling, tax fraud, and underpayment by high-income individual taxpayers.

1. For each of the programs identified, please include: (1) a brief description of the reason for the program; (2) the taxpayers included in the scope of the program by income level and numbers; (3) the yearly staffing (full-time equivalent employees) and funding from the start of the program through fiscal year 2021 (projected); (4) the current status of the program; and (5) for each year of the program, the number of taxpayers examined/contacted and the examination or collection results.

The above data will be important as we move forward this Congress.  Thank you, in advance, for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Bill Pascrell, Jr., Chairman

Subcommittee on Oversight

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