Americans were shocked to learn that the so-called anti-inflation law contained a clause allowing government agencies to hire. 87,000 new agents. I was even more upset to learn that 90% of the audits permitted under the bill were aimed at small businesses and low-income households. $400,000 per year — The fact that even Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen does won’t deny when pressed.

But the IRA’s injection of billions of dollars into our government’s most intrusive and powerful institutions is clearly not enough. If the IRS gets its way, tens of thousands more of his IRS employees will soon join the government payroll and the agency will expand into tax preparation and filing operations.

The U.S. tax system has operated on the principle that citizens report their income, the government exercises some oversight, and taxes are paid. In recent years, however, progressives such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Bernie Sanders (Vermont), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) have pushed for the establishment of the IRS. A turnkey operation to file taxes on our behalf. They managed to include a provision in the Control Inflation Act directing the IRS to have an independent third party investigate the matter.

Just a few weeks ago, after the IRS received positive findings from New America, the Obama administration’s refugee-run think tank, announced A pilot program to start the process. The pilot program will see the IRS prepare taxes for Americans earning less than $125,000 a year during the 2024 tax season. As President Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I am a government person and I am here to help.’

But for many unsuspecting taxpayers who aren’t afraid of being tracked by the IRS, the idea could be very attractive. Who wouldn’t want the entire tax filing process to be a couple of free clicks on your computer? What’s wrong with trusting her friendly IRS officials to determine how much she owes the government?

Accountants and tax preparation software companies benefit from finding the maximum deductions and deductions that US families can claim in a given tax year. I can’t believe her IRS, the tax collector of the country, is trying to get the most out of something other than revenue.

Is the IRS running this pilot program for people with an annual income of $125,000 or less because they want to help them, or because they want to target them? This is a natural question, as the IRS already spends most of its revenue collection efforts on the less wealthy.

heat map developed and selected A ProPublica survey of the most frequently audited locations in the United States found that the poorest neighborhoods in the country are subject to heavy scrutiny by the IRS. That’s because the IRS’ most stringent audit activity is in Humphreys, Missouri, one of the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, while audit rates are 49 percent lower in Loudoun County, Virginia, which has the nation’s highest median income. became clear. .

A report from the Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University corroborated ProPublica’s findings. The university carefully reviewed her IRS data and found Low-income households earning less than $25,000 a year are five times more likely to be audited by authorities than in other regions. The IRS does not seem to agree with President Biden, who frequently points to the wealthy as an income group that does not pay their fair share of taxes.

Even if the IRS’s motives were genuine, it doesn’t have enough information to accurately bill American citizens. Throughout the year, various events in a taxpayer’s life affect the amount of tax paid. The IRS remains unaware of the key factors that reduce personal or family debt, such as home purchases, family caregiving, charitable giving, marriage, and children. The information held by the IRS is primarily about taxpayer income, which tends to increase tax payments. It is for this reason that a report released by the United Kingdom, which operates a similar system of government administration, states: found Countries need to involve taxpayers more in this process, in order to “improve the flow of accurate information throughout the financial year.” By contrast, the IRS direct file excludes taxpayers from the process, potentially depriving tens of thousands of Americans of the refunds they are entitled to.

Our left-wing friends argue that the 87,000 new IRS agents will target the wealthy. We now know that their plan is to target not only middle-income taxpayers, but also middle-income private-sector tax preparation firms, and replace them with his cohort of unionized IRS officials. I know that

Why would the Democrats target middle- and low-income Americans for audits and unemployment? They are doing everything for the same reason. That means redistributing more tax revenues and organizing more union members to support election campaigns. This is about increasing the power of progressives in Washington. Here are 10 more scary words.

Santorum is a former Senator from Pennsylvania who served on the Senate Finance Committee.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.