Showtime: The Sorry State of IRS

The Golden Goose

Between 2020 and 2029, the IRS will fail to collect nearly $7.5 trillion — trillions with a capital T — of taxes it is due.

Year after year, as social programs are slashed, $830 billion in taxes will go uncollected by the federal agency responsible for collecting, you guessed it, taxes.

Is IRS a bunch of dupes incapable of their task? Or is something else going on?

It turns out the hard-working folks at IRS — our nation's tax army — have been given an impossible task. They have been sent into battle without people, equipment, resources, or support. Politicians have made the tax nerds dispensable.

Beneath the numbers is a shockingly corrupt scheme.

IRS Enforcement Agents

Since they are not collecting already-owed taxes, the problem starts with enforcement.

The number of experienced, highly skilled employees (in thousands) working in examinations (revenue agents) and collections (revenue officers) declined by 35 percent and 48 percent, respectively, from 2010 to 2018.

IRS Funding by Activity

As a federal agency, IRS's budget is allocated by the same Congress beholden to deep-pocketed special interest.

If you are going to practice corruption in the open, best to keep the money collectors away from the loot.