Over the past decade, the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) budget has been cut, its workforce has been reduced, and audit rates for high-income taxpayers have nosedived. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). This has resulted in a large and consistently increasing tax gap (the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed). Id. After years of being underfunded, the IRS was allocated billions of dollars in federal funding via the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA”). (Alan Rappeport, The New York Times). This article reviews the impact of the IRA’s historic funding provided to the IRS, how the IRS is implementing the funding across its operations, and opposition that has arisen in response to the positive impact efforts, specifically surrounding the implementation of artificial intelligence (“AI”) as an enforcement mechanism.
Read MoreThe year 2021 proved to be a significant year for cryptocurrency (“crypto”). (Nikita Prasad, NDTV). With El Salvador becoming the first country to use Bitcoin as their legal currency and Tesla, Inc.––one of the world’s most valuable companies––accepting Bitcoin as payment, public interest and the potential for general mainstream acceptance have grown exponentially. Id. This increase in popularity has unsurprisingly exposed crypto to the focus of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) because of the present need for tax dollars and governmental spending. (Alex Gailey & Kendall Little, Time; Robert W. Wood, Forbes). . .
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