Now Is A Great Time To File Your Taxes

The IRS bureaucracy is on life support. Budget contractions went from $14 Billion in 2010, to $12 Billion in 2017, and $11.8 Billion in 2019. The last time the IRS had fewer than 10,000 revenue agents was in 1953, and over the previous years, the number of audits fell 42%. Plus, there is no longer a "nonfilers" division at the IRS due to widening budget cuts. As for the rich, and the country's corporations, the danger of being dealt a multi figured-dollar tax bill is old news. Even tax liens have dramatically decreased from 2012’s 700,000 total down to 2018’s 400,000; ergo defunding the IRS.

However, for the poor who rely on the earned income tax credits (which provides cash to the working have-nots) accounted for 36% of all audits in 2017—more incentive to not be a bottom feeder. The credit's winner's annual income is less than $20,000—are now examined at rates similar to those who make $500,000 to $1,000,000 a year, shifting audits away from middle-class America.

The IRS circulated a report called the "Tax Gap" in 2016, analyzing 2008 to 2010 filings. It's findings suggest 82% of taxpayers paid taxes on what they genuinely own. If the rate of compliance was the same in 2017, that would equal just shy of a trillion dollars in missing taxes spiraling out of control.

In fact, if you haven't filed anything before 2017, you must paper file those years. The en masse transition to electronic filing eliminated the redundancies of in-person audits, leaving red flags up to algorithmic formulas. Add COVID-19, and your paperwork will more than likely be hurled into a bin until fully staffed personnel get to it, which might be never...