The IRS plans to end a major tax loophole for wealthy taxpayers that could raise more than $50 billion in revenue over the next decade, the U.S. Treasury Department says.
The guidance and ruling being announced Monday includes plans to essentially stop “partnership basis shifting” — a process by which a business or person can move assets among a series of related parties to avoid paying taxes.
Biden administration officials said after evaluating the practice that there are no economic grounds for these transactions, with Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo calling it “really just a shell game.” The officials said the additional IRS funding provided through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act had enabled increased oversight and greater awareness of the practice.
“These tax shelters allow wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying what they owe,” IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said.
The officials said the additional IRS funding provided through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act had enabled increased oversight and greater awareness of the practice.
Thank goodness for that!
And, yes, do it!
This is the way.
Indeed. Also, Republicans have already proposed dramatic cuts to the IRS, so we should be under no illusions about what will happen to this loophole and Direct File if Trump & Co. take control in November.
Every dollar invested in the IRS give more than that in taxes from cheaters. Worth it
Yeah, it’s a whopping 600% in general and DOUBLE that for auditing the top 10%!
If you’re for the government being fiscally responsible (rather than pretending that macroeconomic systems are identical to household budgets) you want rule changes like the one mentioned in the headline as well as more funding for auditing and other enforcement of existing IRS rules.
… for rich people.
Because historically it’s been the middle class and poor that get audited, never the rich.
In fact the IRS could just drop every investigation into those and focus on the rich every time.
The IRS processed 162 million tax returns in FY 2023. If they raise $50 billion, then that means $308 for every taxpayer in America, courtesy of the IRS.
Honest taxpayers rejoice. Tax cheats, go cry about it.
Really it has no impact on most of us. I have never used a partnership tax basis shift and almost certainly never would have. It is going to cost a bunch of obscenely wealthy jerks some money and cost the rest of us nothing. Win-win.
Really it has no impact on most of us
No NEGATIVE impact, you mean.
Taking money that would otherwise just be passed back and forth between billionaires and hectomillionaires hurts nobody.
Investing that money in any of the thousands of critically underfunded parts of the government (education, infrastructure including Internet, antipoverty programs, and public defenders being some of the most important ones) could be absolutely TRANSFORMATIVE, especially for those most in need and/or most abused by the current status quo.
i’m a big fan of “hectomillionaires” (the term, not the system that allows hectomillionaires to exist to the detriment of us all, of course)
$30.80 a year is still $30.80, and that is literally money that requires no extra work or payment on the part of the honest taxpayer.
There is 0% chance this change would actually result in $50 billion more in tax revenue, lol.
This is political theater in an election year.
What say you, “no new taxes, just close loopholes” Republicans?
That’s SOCIALISM!
-Fiscally Responsible Republicans who rely on Food Stamps.
Kick ass, IRS. Between this, tye free filing program and the new automatic taxes, I’m ecstatic about cheering them on.
I’ve already given mine. Why should rich people give less than their proportional share?
Easy to cheer them on when they’re forcing tax avoiders to pay taxes like the rest of the population.
Easy to cheer them on when they’re fixing loopholes constructed and exploited by the wealthy.
Easy to cheer them on when they’re streamlining a woefully archaic tax system.
They are using far more of the courts, currency, and infrastructure than we are. They are getting police protection of their property instead of having their pets murdered. They are getting massive government handouts that we are not.
They can start paying their fair share.
