The fine people at Lean Left have drawn our attention to this NY Times piece. Where in the world are we going to get the money to fund any future programs or initiatives when this type of thing going on?
Since taking office, the Bush administration has repeatedly promised to get tough with tax cheats, saying it has ended a long slide in enforcement of tax laws.But an independent analysis of new Internal Revenue Service data released today shows that tax enforcement has fallen steadily under President Bush, with fewer audits, fewer penalties, fewer prosecutions and virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes. The audit rate for the 11,200 largest corporations, which pay nearly all corporate income taxes, has fallen by almost half over the last decade, as has the audit rate for unincorporated businesses.
During a lesson in local economics in high school, I learned that a big part of funding for things like arts, garbage pick-up, schools, and any city services come from businesses. My hometown has a section that was once a large industrial area. It's no longer an economic center, and the city is struggling to make up the difference. The national economy is in the tank and jobs are not reappearing like we were told. What is a financially strapped city to do?
Looking at the NYT piece, it's apparent that taxes from businesses might not be the answer. The reason? Not enough IRS funding to audit companies.
Mark W. Everson, who became tax commissioner last May, said that changes he had made to increase enforcement would not show up until statistics for the current year become available next spring. He also said that the increase would happen only if Congress fully funds the I.R.S. in fiscal 2005. . . .The increase Mr. Bush requested is 4.8 percent, all of which may end up going to incremental costs for the existing I.R.S. staff. The I.R.S. Oversight Board, a panel of business experts Congress created to monitor the agency, wants an increase of more than double that amount, warning that enforcement will otherwise continue to dwindle to the detriment of honest taxpayers.
Hmm. Let's review.
1. Give huge tax breaks to the wealthy while beginning to shift more responsibility to the middle class. CHECK
2. Pay back corporate donors by letting them take advantage of a loophole in the tax code that gives incentives for shipping jobs overseas. CHECK
3. Under fund the IRS so big corporate donors don't have to pay any taxes. CHECK
Call me a cynic, but there's got to be a even-handed way of doing business here. How much longer can average joe taxpayer take a backseat to the corporations?