A sign outside the US Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D.C., on January 8, 2019. The IRS said it has collected a half-billion from overdue millionaires over the past six months. File Photo by Erik Lesser/EPA-EFE
Jan. 12 (UPI) — The Internal Revenue Service on Friday said it collected $360 million from millionaires that evaded their taxes in an ongoing effort funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.
The IRS said the latest funds it has now collected total more than $520 million through the new initiatives aimed at furthering scrutiny of the income tax filings of high-income individuals, large corporations and complex partnerships that have allowed it to improve taxing enforcement.
“These efforts are concentrated among taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt,” the IRS said in a statement. “In an initial success, the IRS collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income earners.”
The IRS said last fall it deployed more than 900 revenue officers as it began contacting about 1,600 new taxpayers that met that criteria, owing hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes
The agency added it also offered positions to more than 560 new accountants in November and December to pursue such cases.
In July, the IRS said its early enforcement of high-income tax evaders built momentum for the current back tax haul, where some have been sentenced for tax evasion, money laundering and filing false tax reports.
The IRS unveiled the plan in April, which also aimed to support customer service by cutting phone wait times and update outdated systems among other things.
On Friday, the IRS also noted it had opened or reopened 54 Taxpayer Assistance Centers since the IRA was passed including four since November.