Deficit Math: IRS Budget Cuts (demanded by GOP) Could Cost $4 Billion

[Bill USA]

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/03/09/IRS-Budget-Cuts-Could-Cost-4-Billion.aspx#page1


In the midst of their drive to reduce federal budget deficits, congressional Republicans are also intent on cutting taxes. One way they may accomplish that is by forcing the IRS to curtail its drive to force tax cheats to pay what they owe.

Among budget cuts Republicans are proposing for the current fiscal year is $600 million in IRS spending between now and September. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told a House subcommittee last week that such a budget cut over just six months likely would reduce federal revenues by $4 billion. The IRS “would need to make substantial cuts to its enforcement programs,” he said.

In other words, cut spending by $600 million, lose $4 billion in revenue and add $3.4 billion to the deficit. That’s absurd arithmetic and unfair to the large majority of taxpayers who pay what they should. Shulman said the IRS collected $2.345 trillion in fiscal 2010, ended last Sept. 30, some 93 percent of federal receipts.

The biggest beneficiaries of reduced enforcement would be those whose income isn’t reported to the Internal Revenue Service by someone else — such as many small businesses or high-income taxpayers who can take advantage of complicated tax avoidance schemes.
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[Turbineguy]

1. Well yes

but if the GOP makes it harder to catch tax cheats isn't that a tax cut going to just the sort of people the GOP likes?