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Report: IRS Pursuing Fewer Tax-Fraud Cases After Budget Cuts

The number of tax-fraud cases brought by the agency’s criminal division has fallen by almost 25 percent since 2010.

Budget cuts at the Internal Revenue Service have reportedly resulted in significantly fewer tax audits and tax-fraud cases. A report by ProPublica and The New York Times found that the IRS’s criminal division brought almost 25 percent fewer tax-fraud cases in 2017 compared to 2010. Tax-return audits have also plunged by 42 percent since the budget cuts began in 2011, according to the report. Audits have reportedly been “not as intensive,” as there’s been greater emphasis on getting them done at a faster rate rather than taking time to request “records and interviews.” Tools at the IRS’s disposal to tackle wealth hidden overseas, like the Obama-era Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, have also not gotten “off the ground.” ProPublica reports all of these factors have resulted in “huge losses for the government.” Business owners are not paying an estimated $125 billion in taxes each year, according to IRS estimates, and Americans have stashed about $1.2 trillion of personal assets in overseas tax havens.