Particle Data Platform
The Journal.

The IRS Shrank. Will That Lead to More Tax Cheating?

4/14/202618 min

Get your tickets to our L.A. live show here!The Trump administration has shrunk the IRS. WSJ’s Richard Rubin reports on how the federal government has scaled back tax enforcement, leaving fewer federal employees to audit returns and collect unpaid tax debts. The cutbacks could lead to more Americans skirting the tax law. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - How Do You Refund $166 Billion?

  • DOGE: The Plan to Downsize the GovernmentSign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter.Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clips

Fewer Agents, Fewer Audits
Budget Admits Lost Revenue
Perception: Easier To Cheat
How Much Enforcement Brings In
Fairness Keeps Compliance High

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Jessica Mendoza· Host0:02

    [music] Tomorrow, your taxes are due in the United States. It's a task that most people generally hate, but love to complain about online.

  2. Speaker 1· Soundbite0:15

    Let me tell you something. I just paid my taxes today, and never before in my life have I ever wanted to commit tax fraud as badly as I do right now.

  3. Speaker 20:23

    Ugh. I went and paid my taxes today. I'm gonna cry.

  4. Jessica Mendoza· Host0:29

    [sniffs] And the agency in charge of collecting these taxes, the Internal Revenue Service, isn't very popular either.

  5. Speaker 3· Soundbite0:38

    Today, the IRS went into my bank account and took $700 from me. How do you actually do your taxes? The IRS literally will... Like, they know exactly on the penny how much I made. They can't send me a, a, a paper with h- just how much I owe?

  6. Jessica Mendoza· Host0:57

    But taxes are important. Your income taxes, along with all the other money the government collects, fund most of the federal budget. These days, though, the IRS is pretty battered.

  7. Richard Rubin· Guest1:11

    There are fewer people doing tax enforcement now. It's the very public shrinking of the IRS that we've seen over the past year.

  8. Jessica Mendoza· Host1:21

    That's our colleague, Richard Rubin. He covers tax policy for the Wall Street Journal.

  9. Richard Rubin· Guest1:26

    We know that the IRS has fewer people, particularly

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click "Accept All" to consent, or "Decline non-essential" to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.