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"I have one more thing to add here. President Biden’s budget would add nearly 87,000 workers to the IRS, mostly to catch tax cheats. The agency would be beefed up with $80 billion in additional funding under Biden’s plan. To put that in perspective, it’s over 13% of the entire defense budget. It would bring the IRS’s budget to 56% of the U.S. Air Force’s budget, at over $93 billion."

I don't see the problem here. If the IRS catches more than $80 billion in tax cheats, then this pays for itself and everything above and beyond the $80 billion are funds that can go toward paying down the debt (what a concept!), infrastructure, the space program, etc.

And maybe once the citizens are tired of having to talk to the IRS about their GameStonk and sleeping pills, an enterprising politician will run on the platform where the IRS sends most taxpayers a letter with what they think they owe, like sane countries[1], and those that contest the figure can go through the hassle of doing their taxes themselves and having all the fun arguing with the IRS auditors. (This was also a fun bit on a recent episode of "Young Sheldon".)

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/the-10-second-tax-return/475899/

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Jun 9, 2021Liked by Chris J. Karr

Whatever one's view on tax policy is, an individual's tax returns are none of the public's business, period. Whoever leaked this information, needs to be punished to the extreme. And you are right Steve, the tax liabilities of the Buffett, Gates, and others are not a secret or a surprise to anyone who has a rudimentary understanding of our tax system.

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Jun 9, 2021Liked by Chris J. Karr

This screams hack to me. I would be really surprised if this came directly from the IRS.

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