In its effort to collect unpaid taxes from what it calls high-income, high-wealth individuals, the IRS has now recovered more than $1 billion, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
The IRS has assigned dozens of senior employees to the initiative, which was launched in 2023 with a focus on taxpayers who have more than $1 million in income and unpaid tax bills of $250,000 or more. Funding for the effort was included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which provided $80 billion over 10 years to the IRS, although that sum has been reduced by $20 billion amid fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers.
“President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is increasing tax fairness and ensuring that all wealthy taxpayers pay the taxes they owe, just like working families do,” said U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “A new initiative to collect overdue taxes from a small group of wealthy taxpayers is already a major success, yielding more than $1 billion in revenue so far.”
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said that in the past, some wealthy taxpayers skipped paying their taxes because they knew the tax agency lacked the resources to pursue them. “Our message for these taxpayers is that now that we are resourced, we can do the job of ensuring that they pay,” he said.
