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Muckety mover - Rich Americans targeted by new IRS unit

By Muckety

October 27, 2009 at 7:50am
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Rich Americans who’ve been especially creative with their tax returns have a new reason to be nervous.

The Internal Revenue Service has formed an enforcement unit targeting wealth taxpayers - or non-taxpayers - who hide income through offshore trusts, partnerships and other feints.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told an accountants’ group Monday that the unit would audit individuals with tens of millions of dollars in assets or income.

“You cannot assess compliance among the nation’s wealthiest individuals by looking only at their 1040s,” Shulman said.

“Our goal is to better understand the entire economic picture of the enterprise controlled by the wealthy individual and to assess the tax compliance of that overall enterprise.”

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1 Comments

  • #1.   Frank Fitton 10.28.2009

    The IRS has now noticed that there is probably a whole lot of money being left out on the table out there that they could claim. It always seemed odd to me that the people that had the most ability to pay the IRS, were at the same time almost treated the most leniently.

    I do feel that the impression is there that the super rich fill their tax returns with write offs and tax breaks and don’t really pay what they should. Now granted, I don’t know what the exact numbers are, but I do know what public perception is. Public perception certainly is that the super wealthy don’t pay the same percentage of their income back in taxes. It might have to do with the fact that they can hire the best accountants, but that certainly doesn’t make it right.

    I have to applaud the IRS for this new enforcement unit, and hope that its actions go in line with the lofty goals that it has set. There really is no way that our government should be forced to cut spending on worthwhile efforts and programs, while these people are able to write off money that could be used to support the programs.

    Check out my blog on the IRS’s new unit and its approach at… http://www.thedebtgazette.com/2009/10/irs-enforcement-group-wealthy/

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