The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is meeting today with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and Montana Senator Max Baucus to discuss the so-called "tax gap." Grassley says a new federal report finds the gap between taxes legally owed and taxes actually collected by the IRS in a timely fashion is 345-billion dollars.
Grassley says "On the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus and I have been working to close that gap in the name of fairness to other taxpayers who actually pay their taxes." Grassley says the tax gap is a significant drain on the U.S. economy and on our country’s ability to pay for vital priorities. He says he wants to know why the IRS isn’t working harder to make up the disparity.
Grassley says "I also want to make sure that the IRS is not wasting its resources before Congress gives the agency any more money — and more money is what they say they need to close the tax gap." He says the bulk of that 345-billion dollars is likely from individual taxpayers, not big companies.
Grassley says "For the most part, corporations, unless they’re very small businesses and probably not incorporated, don’t fall into this category because they probably have the legal help and the institutional knowledge, unless they’re just outright cheaters, to make sure they pay their fair share of taxes, so I think most of it would be individuals." Grassley says he and Baucus are meeting with the IRS’ top brass about closing the tax gap in advance of a Senate Finance Committee hearing to be held on the topic this spring.