Bad Ideas From the IRS to Collect More Taxes

The conflict of interest in the IRS preparing my return seems significant and irreconcilable.

Letter to The WSJ.

"In “The IRS Wants to Prep Your Taxes” (op-ed, June 1), Jason Altmire argues for increased Internal Revenue Service enforcement, saying that the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid has reached an “astonishing $1 trillion.” But the latest official IRS estimate of the tax gap is $540 billion for 2017-19, and relative to the size of our economy, it has shrunk slightly over the past two decades. Academic studies also indicate that the U.S. tax gap is lower than the typical tax gap in Europe.

More aggressive IRS enforcement would mean higher compliance costs for honest taxpayers and losses in our civil liberties. The IRS makes a lot of mistakes, so enforcement imposes collateral damage on the economy. A better way to reduce the tax gap is for Congress to simplify the tax code and for the IRS to improve its accuracy, efficiency and filing help for taxpayers.

Chris Edwards

Cato Institute

Washington"