This commentary is by Gerald Malloy, a veteran and the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Vermont.
As our nation struggles under the burden of record high inflation, Democrats have touted the Biden administration’s new Inflation Reduction Act as the solution. However, its plan to hire 87,000 new IRS agents leaves our small businesses and families vulnerable to even more pain.
Gerald Malloy
Congressman Peter Welch, who is also Vermont’s Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate, said he supported this act because it targets the most wealthy tax evaders and helps struggling families and workers. But the data shows that in the past year a vast number of audits were conducted on taxpayers who earned $75,000 or less.
If it was really that easy for the IRS to crack down on tax evasion from the super rich, why are they using their current resources to target families and small businesses? Seems like the low hanging fruit are the people who don’t have the manpower to defend themselves in the event of an audit.
Not only is the IRS going after the average American, but they really aren’t providing support to prevent the need for audits in the first place. By their own admission, the IRS says its taxpayer customer service has been broken and dysfunctional for quite some time. It is nearly impossible for taxpayers and even accountants to get an IRS employee on the phone to answer questions, which is a grave problem for those trying to be compliant on filing returns, but experiencing issues.
As of May 2022, the IRS had a backlog of more than 21.3 million unprocessed paper tax returns with extraordinary delays in processing refunds to taxpayers.
Given this experience, the IRS has to prove that their priorities are in the right place before we use another $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to expand faulty services.
If you haven’t experienced an audit before, know they are extremely disruptive and unsettling. Agents have license to follow you around, looking into receipts, business deductions and whatever else they deem suspect. This distracts from work and family life, and with the new act, allowing these audits will become increasingly widespread. And if this isn’t distressing enough, there have been bizarre reports that the IRS posted and then deleted recruitment ads that say prospective agents must be willing to “carry a firearm” and “use deadly force if necessary.”
If this is the case, honest, hard-working Americans do not deserve this kind of scrutiny, let alone the threat of violent force if they have to undergo an audit. It is astounding that we have reached a point in our country where this is even considered.
The point of taxes is to pay for our bills without incurring new ones. That’s how we solve inflation, not through government approved bullying.
The IRS is in the business of balancing the U.S budget, and like any business we can’t just give them more money when they haven’t proved themselves — and they have had opportunities to do that for years. Government offices and agencies exist to serve the American people, and the IRS is not above being graded for their performance.
I wrote this for another article and by God it is still true and no one is again talking about the Elephant in the room, The US Government and State . This is a scam….
Read this article and you decide.
https://www.westernjournal.com/days-bidens-mass-student-debt-cancellation-borrowers-13-states-learn-face-big-tax-bill/
This is how they will shackle us if they can.
All you have to do is remember….. Remember all the commercials about “IRS DEBT relief”. Remember all the commercials about getting your credit cards debt removed without bankruptcy,? You would still owe tax to the government as it is considered INCOME. So please please see what they REALLY did this for. Not relief, but income generation for the government, state and federal.
And now you know why they wanted to hire 87000 new agents….
Want to know who pays for it all. The borrower. Thru taxation and possibly confiscation.
Owe VT taxes, even if you disagree. Better pay them or you get no pre-bate or that big end of tax year refund… Kiss that goodbye. Then they will have the ability to just TAKE your home from you… Wait and see, this is only getting worse. Need a small business loan, not gonna happen with bad student loan(or tax) debt. I almost forgot, no tax credit for paying on student loan anymore… so more taxes
As far as “who pays for it” you must also consider that the US government holds all the purse strings/paper for student loans. Not banks, not for years. Before they only guaranteed the loans but now they issue them, thru banks, but still they come from the government. We must also know or not forget that in the world of fixing your debt, one cannot just file for bankruptcy to clear a student debt it sticks around like… Well, you can fill in your own description here.
As always if I am wrong show me. I would love to not be right about this.
To all who are ***k waving over this issue, fighting is not the answer. Be informed then you can be armed with a positive defense. To the politicians and ex politicians who comment we know where your loyalties lie based on the present state of the state. Freedom of speech is fine but your input on this is actually well recorded and we don’t need to keep hearing the echo chamber of the left/progressives of our state here.
Mr. Freitag,
As usual, you miss it all.
If Mr.Malloy is taking issue with an expansion of the IRS that is almost doubling it, with 87,000 armed agents that are being told to be ready to use deadly force, that IS saying that he’s FOR Law and Order.
Don’t you think that anyone that could be shot dead because they were seen as “cheating” is NOT Law and Order?
Is owing the government tax money now an instant death sentence perhaps- all decided upon in a split second by the government agent with the gun?
This is okay with you and your idea of Law and Order?
Laura,
Could you show where you get the information that the potential 87,000 new hires at IRS will be armed agents that are being tod to be ready to use deadly force? Seems a little far fetched.
IRS seeks armed accountants ready for ‘deadly force’
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/irs-seeks-armed-accountants-ready-for-deadly-force
How many of the new hires will be authorized to ‘use deadly force’ remains to be determined. But the fact that the IRS is nearly doubling its labor force at the same time it posts want ads with a job description specifying the prospective employee has the ability and willingness to use deadly force is, well, ‘bad optics’, to say the least.
And the IRS knows this. It already deleted the job description, but not until the cat was out of the bag so to speak. But I’ll let Mr. Freitag equivocate further on the subject. That’s what he’s good at.
Thanks Mr. Eshelman for pointing out that the IRS is not hiring 87,000 new armed agents.
The IRS has had a special agents for its criminal investigation unit for over 100 years. They were the ones who took down Al Capone. The number of special agents has in recent years been around 2,200 and investigate crimes ranging from money laundering to cybercrime. There were fewer agents in 2021 than in 2017 which is why they are most likely looking for more recruits in this specialized and small division of the IRS even before the new legislation was passed.
Mr. Freitag,
Maybe the IRS wouldn’t need all those armed agents if they were not operating in the dark ages..
Doesn’t it seem like common sense that rather than hire all these armed agents, they upgrade their computer systems?
Doesn’t this seem like a no brainer to you? or suspicious perhaps?
Certainly their priorities are not very good.
Lets talk about their Judgement- and then yours.
There were many articles to pick from about the IRS and their failed, antiquated computer systems.
But this one says this has been an issue for 40 years !!
But yet they have plenty of guns…
https://www.atr.org/40-years-of-failure-irs-unable-to-fix-computer-system/
Re: “Thanks Mr. Eshelman for pointing out that the IRS is not hiring 87,000 new armed agents.”
I didn’t point that out D.J. I don’t know how many IRS agents will be authorized to be armed. I said: “How many of the new hires will be authorized to ‘use deadly force’ remains to be determined.”
Laura,
It might be worth checking out the IRS website itself to see what efforts they are currently taking to upgrade their systems. It appears they are aware of the problem and have been working on it for some time. https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/modernizing-tax-processing-systems
No, it’s not “far fetched,” you’re just ignorant because you’re too lazy – or inept – to do your own research and expect others to spoon feed it to you.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/the-state/irs-deletes-job-listing-after-calling-for-special-agents-to-be-able-to-kill-americans-to-do-their-jobs
I had the pleasure to meet Mr. Malloy at a 4th of July event in Strafford. He is a great campaigner and a strong candidate,
I do however disagree with him on this issue. Perhaps it is because I lean towards law and order, I do not find a problem with catching people who are cheating. Perhaps as a working people, my wife and I taxes are a pretty straight forward and I have always considered paying them a responsiblitity to supporting our country.
It appers that there are a good number of people who push or cross the line on what is right when filing their taxes, especially on the higher end. Just knowing that there are enough people watching, just like having enough police patorling and keeping an eye on things, helps both catch those breaking the law and discouraging others for doing so.
For goodness’ sake, Mr. Freitag, apparently can’t help himself.
So, Mr. Malloy .. “is a great campaigner and a strong candidate.” But….
…you lean toward ‘law and order’ and Mr. Malloy doesn’t? Mr. Malloy has “…a problem with catching people who are cheating”? Mr. Malloy isn’t what you characterize yourself as being; “…a working people”?
Folks, consider the not-so-subtle nuance presented here. Like Bill Schubart and the VT Digger ‘clan’, Mr. Freitag’s distortions do, at least, provide an opportunity for me to expose these common progressive deceptions in real time.
One of the great things I learned from my parents with my father being a Republican and mother a Democrat is that it was fine to have different opinions on issues and that you could listen and respect ( and in their case love) the other person even if you disagreed about issues at times ( and in their case most of the time).
It is also one of the great things about our country and one that our first Republican President modled even during our bitter Civil War seeking “malice towards none and charity for all”. We should never, as these days some on the left and in some cases those on the right too, be afraid to listen to what we may not ourselves agree with.
I’m not afraid to listen to what you have to say, Mr. Freitag. I take issue with the truthfulness of your assertions.
TNR provides a great place for people to comment on issues. It is something that our more liberal media like VTDigger and Seven Days has significantly curtailed. Sadly sometimes people here choose to use their comments criticize other people and distort what they write rather than focusing on talking about issues.
Mr. Eshelman is a case in point. While complimenting Mr. Malloy, I certainly did not not criticize him personally as Mr. Eshelman would have it Rather I simply stated my own opinion that hiring more IRS agents would catch cheaters and discourage others from cheating on their taxes and that would be a positive thing for our country.
Mr. Eshelman is more than welcome to take issue with the truthfulness of this assertion. In the meantime best of luck to Mr. Malloy and his campaign.
Criticize or disagree, Mr. Freitag, your assertion is that Malloy’s position does not take into account ‘law and order’, ‘cheating’, or the sensibilities of ‘working people’. That you consider your disagreement in that regard to be a ‘compliment’ speaks volumes.
Mr. Eshelman,
One can disagree with a candidate on one particular position and yet still be supportive of that person. Case in point: I strongly disagree with Governor Scott’s position on Act 46 the school consolidation bill, yet still srongly support the Governor.
Politics and life are complex matters. I have found that while having strong opinions,it also helps to be a bit tolerant of others who may have equally strong opinions and it is good to be open to ideas and to be willing to change should new information and fact warrant it.
Again, Mr. Freitag, it’s not that you disagree, which is your right – and mine. That we disagree is a deflection from the subject at hand. And while you, and others, may feel that I’m beating a dead horse, as it were – our debate is an opportunity for me to demonstrate the subtleties of sophistry in the political arena.
Your initial assertion did not say you were ‘supportive’ of Mr. Malloy, only that he was a great campaigner and a strong candidate. The same can be said of Bernie Sanders.
My point was, and continues to be, that despite the fact that Mr. Malloy’s commentary in no way resembled your initial characterization, you chose to base your disagreement with Mr. Malloy ‘because [you] lean towards law and order’, and because you ‘do not find a problem with catching people who are cheating’, or because you and your wife are ‘working people’ – clearly assertions that Mr. Malloy is somehow lacking those attributes. This is a classic false dichotomy, the tactic you are now famous for using.
Of course, you could put this issue to rest if you simply state that you do, indeed, ‘strongly support’ Mr. Malloy for the U.S. Senate, and that your initial expression of disagreement was based on an erroneous judgement.
Otherwise, please explain what it was that Mr. Malloy said that leads you to believe he doesn’t lean toward law and order, as do you. And explain what Mr. Malloy wrote in his missive that gives you the impression that he doesn’t find a problem with tax cheats. And explain why you believe your ‘working people’ status is any different than Mr. Malloy’s.
But what I don’t want to hear is what you think about Phil Scott or the Act 46 school consolidation legislation. Those are deflections. Just address the points at hand.
Re: “Of course, you could put this issue to rest if you simply state that you do, indeed, ‘strongly support’ Mr. Malloy for the U.S. Senate, and that your initial expression of disagreement was based on an erroneous judgement.”
Well, Mr. Freitag?
I didn’t think so.
I would respectfully suggest that you aren’t as informed as you think. Mr. Malloy is exactly correct – IRS goes for the low hanging fruit because that’s where the payoff, er revenue is. Also, wealthy donors, er taxpayers have a lot more pull than you may think. Ultimately, however, the problem is the absurd tax system itself. Paying one’s tax obligation should not be so obscenely complicated and difficult. And if it wasn’t so ridiculously complicated, it wouldn’t be so easy to cheat or push the envelope. And to top it off the awful tax system is administered by an agency that can’t answer its phone to assist taxpayers trying to comply. People like Welch who think the solution is more enforcement should not be allowed anywhere near government.
This is about, once again, weaponizing the I.R.S. to go after citizens with conservative views using harassment and intimidation to silence them. Speak out against the “Administrative State” and you will find yourself being audited.
The solution is to abolish IRS and implement a national sales tax. In other words, pay your tax in accordance with what you spend instead of what you earn. This will automatically bring people who are living outside the tax system into it because they still spend, and hiding their income will no longer work. It will also eliminate the onerous compliance obligation inherent in the current unworkable system. Everyone would win except politicians, who would no longer be able to manipulate the system in favor of their donors.
Sounds good to me but the government giving up their IRS-15 weapon has as much chance of happening as me giving up my AR-15.
The problem with a national sales tax is that the wealthiest spend far less of their income than 95% of Americans, thus they would pay far less in taxes. They then of c course use that surplus income to rig the system for their increased benefit.
An equitable tax system would have an adjustable rate which would be based on the proportion between the income of the highest earners and the lesser earner. A person earning one-tenth of what the highest 0.06% makes would have a tax rate one-tenth of that top rate. I ran the numbers, and a commonly acceptable rate of 35% would mean every Vermonter earning less than a million dollars would pay less in taxes than they do now, and the top earners would still have an average after-tax income of around $2.4 million.
Now, how many of us earning less than a million would oppose that sort of a system, especially when it leaves the top earners still able to afford their private jet?
You are still trying to create an income tax out of a national sales tax – that’s why you’re focused on the “rich” not spending enough of their income to pay enough. The rich still spend far more than the rest, which means they would pay far more in a sales tax. The problem is the greedy mindset that until the “rich” pay their fair share all is lost. That’s nonsense. Moreover, we don’t have a tax problem in this country, we have a spending problem. Since politicians cannot stop themselves from spending money we don’t have in order to buy votes, reward their donors, reward their friends, get re-elected, they will never have enough of our money and fairness doesn’t figure into the equation. Also, if you want the rich to pay more, have a higher sales tax on yachts, cars costing over $100,000, fur coats, expensive diamonds, etc. The benefits of a simple tax system to replace the obscene failure of a system we have now are overwhelming.
No, as was pointed out in the book, “The Crash of ’79”, “A million dollars means a nice house and a nice boat. Ten million dollars doesn’t mean ten nice houses and ten nice boats.” (Remember, this was written 44 years ago, when a million dollars was worth about ten times more than it is today.)
While the richest do spend more money, they do not spend as much of their household income as the less wealthy do; instead, they use it to buy things that a sales tax wouldn’t cover– like stock options, junk bond issues, offshore money havens.
An example: When Reagan dropped the marginal tax rate to 59%, $13 trillion was available to the nation’s wealthiest. They did not start buying more goods. Neither were there enough new stocks (indicative of an industrial America looking for capitalization of production of new goods) to plow the money into. It made no sense to cheapen the value of existing stocks by putting $13 trillion into the established market, so Wall Street created products to satisfy the vacuum– the junk bond and hedge funds, the first cancers on capitalism and the herald of our present state of post-capitalism.
It was the existing 79% marginal tax rate that funded the creation of the microchip industry (thanks to the space race). Even today, our vaunted “innovators” like Elon Musk are really dependent on government largesse for their work.
The Progressive system of taxation is another divide and conquer scheme to punish selectively only the citizens a totalitarian government wishes. It was designed to be a weapon to control people thru fear. Almost half of the citizenry doesn’t pay it. If you don’t have pay taxes, who would you vote for? The IRS would not be threat it is today if we had a flat tax or a national sales tax along with a balanced budget. It was designed to go after people and punish them, it’s not about collecting taxes.
REPEAL THE 16th AND 17th AMENDMENTS!
“The only power government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there are not enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking the law”. – Ayn Rand
The IRS is a threat only to those who wish to avoid, like Ken Lay of Enron did, the regulation that would keep them honest.
There is no “half of the citizenry” that doesn’t pay taxes– they pay payroll taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes and– in state like New Hampshire– “fees” that in other states are taxes. The bottom half is too poor to have to pay federal income taxes, but actually the percentage that they pay in all those other taxes is greater than what the top 5% (incomes at $160,00+) pay. However, the middle class pays the highest total percentage of all.
My question is, “Why are these IRS agents going to be lethally armed while, at the same time, this administration is bent on denying us our Second Amendment rights”? Anyone else smell something rotten here?
Patriots and Truthers…enjoy…
https://choiceclips.whatfinger.com/2022/08/29/compliance-and-complicity-whatfingers-7/
If we don’t give the IRS the resources to go after the massively cheating parties, it will continue to go for the low-hanging fruit simply to look as though it’s doing something. To properly audit just one of the Wall Street megacrooks, Goldman Sachs, requires hiring 7,500 agents. As not more than 4,000 of the present proposed new hires is going to be an auditor, Wall Street is going to get off scot-free again. We should be demanding the employment of at least 10,000 auditors to start recovering owed taxes.
In addition, having uncovered the crime, there is then the necessity of plowing through the court system against the well-heeled white shoe attorneys Wall Street and the megacorporations employ. This can take years, even a decade. For that, you have to have a phalanx of tax attorneys in government employ.
Finally, taxes are an investment in America. Thanks to the 79% marginal tax rate in effect during the Kennedy/Johnson years, we were able to afford to go to the Moon, fight in Vietnam and create the Great Society programs (all of you who don’t benefit from Medicare can argue to the contrary), all at the same time! Right now, with the nominal corporate and marginal income rates at 35%, we are not going to have enough money to so much as get the national infrastructure out of the C- rating conferred by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Cutting the tax rate from 25% to 20% saves the average Vermont family $3,600, but it saves the $500,000+ earners (2,207 of them in 2019) an average of $76,300. So, who suffers from cutting taxes? Not the 2,207 who can afford private schools, hire private security and can use a helicopter instead of driving on potholed roads.
Re: “If we don’t give the IRS the resources to go after the massively cheating parties, it will continue to go for the low-hanging fruit simply to look as though it’s doing something.”
‘Massively cheating parties’?? Who would they be?
And what kind of resources are you talking about?
“The IRS has purchased guns and ammunition in the past.
This isn’t the first time the IRS has been associated with buying loads of ammunition. In 2019, Forbes reported that the IRS had hoards of ammunition and guns…. According to reports, many of the guns are machine guns. As it stands, only the Criminal Investigation Division in the IRS actually gets to carry.”
Hmmm, so only the Criminal Investigation Division in the IRS actually gets to carry. Like the guys in the recent IRS “job posting for Criminal Investigation Special Agents. A “key requirement” for applicants is that they have to be “legally allowed to carry a firearm,” and “major duties” include “Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary” and “Be willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments,” according to the job posting.
Talk about ‘feeding the beast’.
Speaking of the great society, it was promulgated by the democrat party. The party of slavery. Johnson said ” I will have those n*****s voting democrat for 100 years”. This was done by creating economic slaves. Now they are working for the WEF promulgating more slavery, but of everyone. I’m sure that my comment are getting me enshrined in some FBI/IRS watch list, for future action.
Mr. Metivier, please take this comment in the constructive nature to which I offer it.
I find your interjection of race into this discussion to be more than a distraction. Your comment supports the Democrat’s current projected stereotype of Conservative systemic racism, whether or not you agree with LBJ’s documented point of view.
To conservatives everywhere…. think before you speak. You are being set up for a fall, unjustified as it may seem in your own minds. If you don’t believe me, listen to public radio this week, and prepare yourselves for Joe Biden’s speech this coming Thursday evening. Conservatives are, more than ever before, being characterized as violent, dangerous, racist, white supremacist, “semi-fascists”. And if Conservatives respond in kind, it will only serve to support that perception.
Remember, your 1st amendment right to say whatever you like comes with a personal responsibility to be held responsible for what you say, in the same way you propose to hold your political opponents accountable. That the IRS, or the FBI, or any other government institution, is becoming unreasonably authoritarian, and in fact, breaching our constitutional protections, is sufficient proof to justify our criticism without mimicking the Democrat tactic of race-baiting.
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
― Friedrich W. Nietzsche
When 7,500 agents must be hired to go after one taxpayer, it could not possibly be clearer that the problem is the system itself.
It’s not “vast”, it’s relatively small. I am more concerned that the far right was trying hard to “starve the beast” to dissuade it’s core mission of collecting taxes and performing audits when warranted.
The only agency that can confiscate property and wealth without due process. Where you have to pay out of your pocket for lawyer to get back your money or property. How about a public defender for citizens to use for tax cases when accused by the IRS.
CUT OFF THE HEAD OF THE SNAKE! REPEAL THE 16th & 17th AMENDMENTS!
Bill, since you comment here occasionally, how about convincing Digger to allow us to comment over there. Seems fair to me and you have influence there. Amazing you are here to comment on a conservative site that allows free speech while your clan can’t stand individual thought and doesn’t allow comments, but they beg for money.
WOW! It’s like that?
Liberals who used to support free speech and opposition to “the Man” (big government) have now morphed into supporting exactly the opposite. All part of the race toward socialism and voluntarily supporting the bureaucracy that will enslave them as well as us. All of those new IRS agents will concentrate on the middle income and working poor since they have picked as much clean as they legally can from the wealthy who can afford lawyers to defend themselves. Watch out, small business owners and middle class taxpayers and seniors. I just read a news story online that stated we will now be 3X more likely to be audited as the greedy Biden administration looks for more and more money for its welfare state with which to buy votes.
Can these Digger folks not help themselves? Here’s yet another false dichotomy, a logical fallacy. This time from the VT Digger refugee, Bill Schubart.
The IRS currently has 93,654 employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Adding 86,852 employees to its payroll is a 92% expansion. That this may seem to be a ‘relatively small’ increase to delusional folks like Mr. Schubart should be no surprise.
Clearly, Gerald Malloy frightens these guys. Schubart’s misrepresentation is consistent with the Digger clan’s previous distortions. On August 4th, for example, VT Digger reporter, Ethan Weinstein, misled Digger readers when he claimed Gerald Malloy said he (Malloy) “… would vote to ban abortions federally without any exceptions”.
This was a lie. Malloy never publicly said this. Weinstein made it up. And when I confronted Digger editor, Tom Kearney, he excused Weinstein’s dishonesty and censored my letter to the Digger editor that called him out.
My guess: we’ll not hear from ‘Chicken Little’ Schubart on TNR again for a while, even though I hope we do. After all, it’s an opportunity to hold him and his ‘clan’ accountable. Something they are clearly unaccustomed to experiencing.