“We’re watching the collapse of the basic compact between the US government and its citizens….” I believe the systemic corruption that allows the wasteful and sometimes criminal spending of our tax money already destroyed that relationship. I have a small business. I paid out the equivalent of 1/3 of wages in taxes in this payroll. For what? Where does that go? Climate scams and friends funding friends. Trans nonsense and child mutilation. Sesame Street for foreign countries. Meanwhile my staff, which includes a 76 year old woman who has earned a retirement but has to work, show up every day in hopes of growing this business to the point where they can have a stable future. This collapse was inevitable. The whole system is collapsing. Trump is not the cause, but he happens to be in office while the pieces are falling. I’m sick of paying to criminals, corruption, and for things no one NEEDS.
Agreed. Trump did not create the mess and the backlog and the failures and struggles of the IRS and its dilapidated system. He is the one trying to turn the ship away from this ice burg it has been dragging against. We are small business owners. We are more than willing to pay taxes. But not to a corrupt system. It has to go.
A lot of this could be made much simpler if the IRS would provide taxpayers with online forms with information already available in them that the IRS has.
Right now, many people spend time or pay others to spend time copying numbers from forms from banks etc into the tax forms, even though that information is already sent to the IRS.
This is a lot of wasted time.
For many people, this would drastically streamline their tax preparation and also perhaps streamline with the irs has to check, not sure? Right now they wait for you to file and then check if what you fill in for many entires is the number they already have. Waste of lots of time!
This was a (unintentionally) a very encouraging read! The so-called "inflation reduction act" added IRS agents. Lovely to see the BBB cutting the dread IRS. Taxation is theft. Hobbling theft can only be a good thing!
“These are not just employees—they're walking encyclopedias of tax law, audit techniques, and institutional knowledge”… all the more reason to replace them, IMO.
The idea of maintaining corporate knowledge is the basis of the civilian workforce in DOD. The trouble with this idea is that it creates and sustains the Deep State. It is mostly nameless bureaucrats who make up the Beast, the criminals selected to lead them only makes minor changes and then they’re gone. The Beast puts it all right back where it was. The point being, draining the swamp means getting rid of certain career bureaucrats.
Mr. Posner, I am intrigued by so much of your investigative work. However, I struggle to understand what you are trying to say here, other than general reporting. It seems that at the same time that you scold (?) the current Administration for its drastic changes and cuts of money and manpower, you are listing the very deep chaos and crisis that this very system has created. Are you saying the IRS is ‘too big to fail’?
I feel like the interviews, stats and quotes you reference PROVE the case for sweeping, dramatic changes. You mention huge backlogs of fraud, billions lost in uncollected taxes, thousands upon thousands of firings, 2 hour phone waits previous to these cuts with 11% of calls unanswered (forgive my non-exact recollections of your facts, I did not write down what I heard). So, with all of these problems, should we allow the beast to continue in its current state because it hurts to rip the bandaid off?
The IRS has taken on a life of its own with corruption and entitlement. We all recall how it has been used politically to hurt and protect people. It thinks it is all powerful. Most agree the tax code has become too complicated. The IRS does not serve the people positively any longer.
No other President was willing to take on this challenge, yet most Americans seem to have been calling for reforms for decades.
I voted for this. A lot of us did.
Just b/c it’s going to be chaotic do we not make changes? Do we let the problems continue to fester? Slower smaller changes do not root out the rot. There is not much time to get to the corruption before Trump is out. No one will do this in the future.
MANY Americans pay no taxes, but more are affected by the services provided, or not provided, from taxes collected - so, yes and no, to ‘all’ Americans might suffer the consequences of change. Are we not all feeling the effects of a corrupted system already?
Finally, the employees you interviewed, anonymous or not, might they be part of the problem? Could they be the wolves guarding the hen house? Are these sources protective of the old, failing system? Or possibly Trump haters trying to bring him down or just protect their jobs? I would think most IRS employees would defend their work to protect their self worth, comfy salary,ego or even (gasp) subvert Trump’s ability to deliver on campaign promises…
When these sources claim that what Trump is doing to the IRS will be crippling for the country and that Americans will pay the price, etc., is that similar to saying it will be the end of democracy if Orange Man wins or that he is a fascist and worse?
It will require a collapse to eliminate the existing tax code.
There’s no reason a flat tax can’t be implemented. The only reason it still exists is because too many people and businesses rely upon their carve outs.
Let the IRS die, implement a flat tax and be done with it.
The author is liking alot of the anti-IRS comments. In reading the article, he seemed sympathetic to what the agency is going through and the negative repercussions of its downfall?
Crazy to think how much disruption this could mean for everyday taxpayers. Makes me wonder if compliance will actually get harder before it gets easier.”
“We’re watching the collapse of the basic compact between the US government and its citizens….” I believe the systemic corruption that allows the wasteful and sometimes criminal spending of our tax money already destroyed that relationship. I have a small business. I paid out the equivalent of 1/3 of wages in taxes in this payroll. For what? Where does that go? Climate scams and friends funding friends. Trans nonsense and child mutilation. Sesame Street for foreign countries. Meanwhile my staff, which includes a 76 year old woman who has earned a retirement but has to work, show up every day in hopes of growing this business to the point where they can have a stable future. This collapse was inevitable. The whole system is collapsing. Trump is not the cause, but he happens to be in office while the pieces are falling. I’m sick of paying to criminals, corruption, and for things no one NEEDS.
I share a lot of your anger every time I think about where our tax dollars are squandered without consequence
Completely agree.
Agreed. Trump did not create the mess and the backlog and the failures and struggles of the IRS and its dilapidated system. He is the one trying to turn the ship away from this ice burg it has been dragging against. We are small business owners. We are more than willing to pay taxes. But not to a corrupt system. It has to go.
Agreed, 100%
A lot of this could be made much simpler if the IRS would provide taxpayers with online forms with information already available in them that the IRS has.
Right now, many people spend time or pay others to spend time copying numbers from forms from banks etc into the tax forms, even though that information is already sent to the IRS.
This is a lot of wasted time.
For many people, this would drastically streamline their tax preparation and also perhaps streamline with the irs has to check, not sure? Right now they wait for you to file and then check if what you fill in for many entires is the number they already have. Waste of lots of time!
Taxation is theft.
This was a (unintentionally) a very encouraging read! The so-called "inflation reduction act" added IRS agents. Lovely to see the BBB cutting the dread IRS. Taxation is theft. Hobbling theft can only be a good thing!
“These are not just employees—they're walking encyclopedias of tax law, audit techniques, and institutional knowledge”… all the more reason to replace them, IMO.
Yes. They have been running the system into this downward spiral. So why do we keep them?
The idea of maintaining corporate knowledge is the basis of the civilian workforce in DOD. The trouble with this idea is that it creates and sustains the Deep State. It is mostly nameless bureaucrats who make up the Beast, the criminals selected to lead them only makes minor changes and then they’re gone. The Beast puts it all right back where it was. The point being, draining the swamp means getting rid of certain career bureaucrats.
In a sense, all government employees are dead money...so I read somewhere..!
There are ways to not have a tax liability. Just takes some investigation.
Mr. Posner, I am intrigued by so much of your investigative work. However, I struggle to understand what you are trying to say here, other than general reporting. It seems that at the same time that you scold (?) the current Administration for its drastic changes and cuts of money and manpower, you are listing the very deep chaos and crisis that this very system has created. Are you saying the IRS is ‘too big to fail’?
I feel like the interviews, stats and quotes you reference PROVE the case for sweeping, dramatic changes. You mention huge backlogs of fraud, billions lost in uncollected taxes, thousands upon thousands of firings, 2 hour phone waits previous to these cuts with 11% of calls unanswered (forgive my non-exact recollections of your facts, I did not write down what I heard). So, with all of these problems, should we allow the beast to continue in its current state because it hurts to rip the bandaid off?
The IRS has taken on a life of its own with corruption and entitlement. We all recall how it has been used politically to hurt and protect people. It thinks it is all powerful. Most agree the tax code has become too complicated. The IRS does not serve the people positively any longer.
No other President was willing to take on this challenge, yet most Americans seem to have been calling for reforms for decades.
I voted for this. A lot of us did.
Just b/c it’s going to be chaotic do we not make changes? Do we let the problems continue to fester? Slower smaller changes do not root out the rot. There is not much time to get to the corruption before Trump is out. No one will do this in the future.
MANY Americans pay no taxes, but more are affected by the services provided, or not provided, from taxes collected - so, yes and no, to ‘all’ Americans might suffer the consequences of change. Are we not all feeling the effects of a corrupted system already?
Finally, the employees you interviewed, anonymous or not, might they be part of the problem? Could they be the wolves guarding the hen house? Are these sources protective of the old, failing system? Or possibly Trump haters trying to bring him down or just protect their jobs? I would think most IRS employees would defend their work to protect their self worth, comfy salary,ego or even (gasp) subvert Trump’s ability to deliver on campaign promises…
When these sources claim that what Trump is doing to the IRS will be crippling for the country and that Americans will pay the price, etc., is that similar to saying it will be the end of democracy if Orange Man wins or that he is a fascist and worse?
Just my thoughts.
yeah. shut it down and stop your whining crybaby
A flat tax removes most of these “problems” and potentially removes the IRS from the playing field entirely.
It will require a collapse to eliminate the existing tax code.
There’s no reason a flat tax can’t be implemented. The only reason it still exists is because too many people and businesses rely upon their carve outs.
Let the IRS die, implement a flat tax and be done with it.
The author is liking alot of the anti-IRS comments. In reading the article, he seemed sympathetic to what the agency is going through and the negative repercussions of its downfall?
Crazy to think how much disruption this could mean for everyday taxpayers. Makes me wonder if compliance will actually get harder before it gets easier.”
I'm in shock. You actually criticized something caused by the Trump Whitehouse? Isn't there some way you can blame it on trans people?