The IRS made the announcement on Friday.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it collected some $360 million from tax-delinquent millionaires, coming after the federal agency collected about $122 million from wealthy Americans in October.
Separately, the agency said that it is increasing its efforts to target Americans who make more than $1 million in income yearly and have more than $250,000 in tax debt, according to a news release.
Officials from the IRS told reporters Thursday to give updates on how the agency has used a portion of the tens of billions of dollars allocated to the agency through the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August 2022.
“The IRS continues to increase scrutiny on high-income taxpayers as we work to reverse the historic low audit rates and limited focus that the wealthiest individuals and organizations faced in the years that predated the Inflation Reduction Act,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a news release on Friday. “We are adding staff and technology to ensure that the taxpayers with the highest income, including partnerships, large corporations and millionaires and billionaires, pay what is legally owed under federal law.”
His statement added that the “additional resources the IRS has received is making a difference for taxpayers, and we plan to build on these improvements in the months ahead.”
‘Dozens of Revenue Officers’
In the news release, the IRS said that it has “ramped up” its efforts to go after “high-income” and “high-wealth” individuals who haven’t “filed their taxes or failed to pay recognized tax debt, with dozens of revenue officers focused on these high-end collection cases.” It noted that the agency has collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income earners so far.
The agency said it will put “increased focus” on making sure that Self-Employment Contributions Act taxes are being “properly reported” and paid by “wealthy individual partners” who have “inappropriately claimed to qualify as ‘limited partners’ in state law limited partnerships,” said the news release.
“In contrast to wage earners whose employment taxes are deducted from their paychecks, self-employed individuals are required to report and pay their SECA taxes on their federal income returns,” it said. “The IRS efforts to date include over 80 audits of wealthy individuals.”
