We are part of The Trust Project.
The Sept. 14 letter, “ Biden’s bad decisions led to expanding IRS ,” opined that if the “President Joe Biden-led administration would have put more thought into its multitude of bad decisions, it would have no reason to expand the reach of the IRS.” Bad — or exemplary — decisions notwithstanding, the administration had plenty of reasons to expand the IRS.
Regarding corporate taxpayers, from 2018 to 2021, Netflix paid less than 1% in taxes on an income of $10.5 billion; in the same period, FedEx paid no taxes on an income of $8.2 billion, according to Americans for Tax Fairness. Thanks to legislation contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, there is now a 15% minimum corporate tax.
As to individual taxpayers, the richest 1% have avoided paying $160 billion a year that they owe in taxes. This is largely because the IRS lacks the resources to catch tax cheats. Over the past decade, IRS funding and staffing has fallen by more than 20%, due to Republican budget cuts. Audits of millionaires are down by almost 75%, as CNBC and others reported. Expanding the IRS will reduce incidents of cheating.
Further, the new federal law will not impact most taxpayers; no one earning less than $400,000 per year will face increasing taxes.
Passage of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act should be celebrated by anyone who values tax fairness. Seen in this light, the act could have been named the “Inequality Reduction Act.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Roger B. Day
Duluth
Letters to the editor are a critical part of the community dialogue, and the News Tribune attempts to publish all letters of opinion meeting our requirements.
Letters are limited to 300 words, must be the original work of the author and must be exclusive to the News Tribune. Letters are edited for style, space, accuracy and civility. Letter writers are limited to one published submission every 30 days.
With rare exceptions, the News Tribune does not publish poetry; letters that are anonymous, libelous, or attack other writers; consumer-complaint letters; thank-you letters or letters generated by political or special-interest campaigns.
We will consider exclusive local view columns of about 600 words or fewer. Authors should possess unique insights, and their commentaries should demonstrate greater knowledge of their subject than letters.
Email submissions to: letters@duluthnewscom.
