Millionaire tax evaders be warned, the IRS says it's coming for you

Wealthy Americans who don’t pay their fair share of taxes are being warned that officials are intensifying their crackdown.

The Internal Revenue Service says it has been successful in its pursuit of those who had not paid what they owe and warns that “this is just the start,” thanks in part to resources made available by the Inflation Reduction Act.

In recent months, the agency has closed about 175 delinquent tax cases involving millionaires, recovering around $38 million, as well as investigations into wealthy taxpayers who have been sentenced for tax evasion, money laundering and filing false tax returns.

These millionaires decided that paying taxes that millions of Americans do, even in tough times, was not something they wanted to do. Instead they spent the money they owed on gambling at casinos, vacations and the purchase of luxury goods. 

The IRS has also identified around 100 millionaires who are living in Puerto Rico without meeting the residence and source rules involving U.S. possessions. It expects to bring criminal charges against these people in due course.

Other wealthy Americans are abusing the U.S. treaty with Malta to enjoy retirement schemes without paying U.S. taxes.

Tax officials will also be escalating their work on ensuring correct filing and tax payments from those wealthy Americans who choose not to file tax returns to conceal their true income.

BETTER SERVICE

As well as seeking to bring noncompliant millionaires in line, the IRS says the Inflation Reduction Act resources is has enabled it to improve its service for every U.S. taxpayer.

Through the end of filing season these service improvements included answering 3 million more calls, cutting phone wait times to three minutes (down from 28 minutes), served 140,000 more taxpayers in-person, digitized 80 times more returns than in 2022, cleared the backlog of unprocessed 2022 individual tax returns with no errors, launched two new digital tools, and enabled a new direct-deposit refund option for taxpayers with amended returns.