Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
I don’t know about you but that phrase frightens the “stuffin” outta me. This all-powerful agency is about to get more powerful.
There is no greater contrast, in this election, than the differences between the two major parties when it comes to the power of the IRS. Republicans have no interest in strengthening the reach of this agency. They believe the IRS should be administering the law fairly and that interactions with taxpayers should be few and simple. Democrats want the agency to be an intrusive enforcement agency, to collect more funds instead of being efficient and they want no accountability.
The Biden Administration included in the massive “Inflation Reduction Act”, $80 Billion to the IRS for the addition of 87,000 new IRS agents. (I call this bill the “Scalp the Taxpayer” Bill). This is six times the current budget for the IRS. Many of these new hires will be ‘special agents’ who will be armed. Anyone have any doubts about what their jobs will be?
With these new hires, the IRS will have more employees than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI and Border agents combined. Scared yet?
A recent posting for job hirings by the IRS agency, on its jobs website, read like this: “Requirements include working a minimum of 50 hours per week, which may include irregular hours, and be on call 24/7, including holidays and weekends and Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.” Of course, conveniently, that requirement has now been removed. I’m sure the fact that it was exposed had nothing to do with the removal.
The IRS has never been known to be customer friendly. I recall an encounter shared with me many years ago by a friend. My friend was a home builder and had been audited by the IRS. He told me that after the audit, the agency determined that he owed $90,000 and they demanded swift payment. He was shocked and he said, “Where in the world can I get that kind of money. Do you think I have friends in the Mafia?” The agents’ response was, “It’s better to owe it to the Mafia, than to owe it to us.” What great customer service!!
In 2021, the agency only answered 11% of the 282 million phone calls it received. Yet the agency only plans to spend 5% of the $80 billion, given by the Democrats in the bill, for customer service.
You may have had this happen to you. The IRS regularly, notifies taxpayers, after returns are filed, that you still owe $$. It’s usually only a few thousand dollars from average income payers. It’s easier to pay it than to pay the accountant and protest. Most people do just that, pay it. My household has had this happen more than once. The IRS knows this reaction and, I believe, it’s just a scheme to get more money out of taxpayers than they actually owe.
The Wall Street Journal ran a report less than 6 months into Biden’s presidency, about the abuse-of-power already going on at the IRS. Information was leaked regarding about 15 years of tax returns from many wealthy Americans, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and others.
This is highly confidential information and is a crime, under federal law. Of course, it was from an anonymous source and nobody has been held accountable. I trust that if Republicans take over the House or Senate, hearings will proceed and culprits will be discovered. I won’t hold my breath.
Then more recently, in September, the IRS divulged more confidential information about taxpayers. The agency, inadvertently, posted on its’ website private information regarding 120,000 taxpayers. This breach was data from Form 990-T. These payers typically are people whose IRAs are invested in limited partnerships, real estate or other assets that generate income. Again, I doubt these are poor people.
This is likely the Willie Sutton principle. He was asked why he robbed banks and he replied, “That’s where the money is.”
Make no mistake, the IRS will be going where the money is. Rich people have lots of money but there are few of them and they have the resources to fight the agency. The agency will likely take the path of least resistance and that’s the majority of taxpayers who are not wealthy.
They’re softening us all up by pretending to expose the rich. Class warfare has worked very well for their purposes. Get everyone to hate the rich and show that’s where the money is. The fact is there’s not nearly enough rich people to feed that alligator, even if you confiscate all their wealth.
I quoted Martin Niemoller last week and it’s appropriate to refer to it again here.
Speak up against this abuse of power. There may be no one left to speak up when they come for you.
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Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.