After what happened to Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status under the Obama administration with the IRS ultimately apologizing in 2017 for “screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, [and] subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays,” you’d think tax professionals would understand conservatives’ alarm over the possibility that 87,000 more IRS agents could be added to the rolls ostensibly on grounds to catch high-income tax cheats if the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” makes it to Joe Biden’s desk.
Though many undoubtedly do understand the concerns, one who enjoys talking tax policy on Twitter raised some eyebrows when he told conservatives in a nutshell that the had nothing to fear from an IRS audit unless they have actually cheated.
Adam Markowitz, who according to a glowing Bloomberg Tax profile is an “IRS-licensed enrolled agent,” told his “GOP friends” Friday that they shouldn’t worry about the possibility they’ll get some phone calls and visits from the IRS should the bill be signed into law.
“How about just don’t cheat on tax returns?” he advised, before proclaiming that “I never understood the fear of an IRS audit. Don’t lie. Period.”
In his next tweet, though, Markowitz acknowledged what a headache an audit was to go through because “nobody ever wins” in them. Still, he said, it’s worth the pain, stress, anxiety, and personal expense if it snags a few tax cheats along the way:
And then it was back to the original point:
Many, like yours truly, provided a friendly reminder of why conservatives are especially leery of the IRS:
Not only that, but telling people they shouldn’t fear an audit unless they’ve lied on their tax returns is a whole lot like telling someone that they they have nothing to fear from the police and investigators as long as they’ve done nothing wrong:
Plus, as others pointed out, it’s not always a matter of fearing one will be caught cheating that worries people when it comes to a tax audit:
That’s a problem that could be solved to a significant degree by way of a simplification of the U.S. tax code:
No one is more pleased than Massachusetts’ Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) who promised to provide the IRS with “super-duper enforcement powers.”
Besides that, if anyone needs to be audited, it’s the federal government, not the poor and middle class folks who will bear the brunt of the 87,000 agents, not the corporate fat cats Democrats claim they are targeting:
Seconded.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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