IRS Announced That $172 Million Recovered From 21,000 Non-Filing Wealthy Taxpayers In First 6 Months of New Initiative

On September 6, 2024 the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen and Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Danny Werfel delivered remarks at the Austin, Texas, IRS campus to announce new milestones under Inflation Reduction Act initiatives to ensure wealthy individuals pay taxes owed, improve service for taxpayers through the Digital First Initiative and modernize foundational technology.

The IRS in February 2024 launched an initiative to pursue 125,000 high-income, high-wealth taxpayers who have not filed taxes since 2017. 

These Are Cases Where IRS Has Received Third Party Information—Such As Through Forms W-2 And 1099s—Indicating These People Received Income Between $400,000
And $1 Million Or More Than $1 Million,
But Failed To File A Tax Return.

Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS non-filer program ran sporadically since 2016 due to severe budget and staff limitations that did not allow these cases to be pursued. With new Inflation Reduction Act funding, the IRS now has the capacity to do this core tax administration work. In the first six months of this initiative, nearly 21,000 of these wealthy taxpayers have filed, leading to $172 million in taxes being paid.

The IRS in the fall of 2023 launched a new initiative using Inflation Reduction Act funding to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay recognized tax debt, with dozens of senior employees assigned to these cases. 

This work is concentrated on taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. 

The IRS Was Previously Unable To Collect From
These Individuals Due To A Lack Of Resources.

After successfully collecting $38 million from more than 175 high-income, high-wealth individuals last year, the IRS expanded this effort last fall to around 1,600 additional high-income, high-wealth individuals. 

• Nearly 80% of these 1,600 millionaires with delinquent tax debt have now made a payment, leading to over $1.1 billion recovered. 
• This is an additional $100 million just since July, when Treasury and IRS announced reaching the $1 billion milestone.

Read more at: Tax Times blog