- The IRS has recovered $160 million from tax-evading millionaires so far this year
- Commissioner Danny Werfel said the IRS would now focus on large companies
- In one example, a former CEO attempted to claim his home extensions as a “business expense.”
The crackdown on 100 tax-dodging millionaires has helped the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collect an additional $122 million, officials announced today.
The IRS received billions of dollars earlier this year to improve efficiency and increase enforcement under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Now Commissioner Danny Werfel says the money has helped officials bring ultra-wealthy tax avoiders under control. Since the beginning of the year, the tax authorities have recovered $160 billion.
In one case, a former CEO was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $15 million for deducting personal expenses as business expenses. This included financing his construction of a 51,000-square-foot mansion, Werfel said.
Among the so-called ‘business expenses’, the entrepreneur listed an outdoor swimming pool, a pool house and tennis, basketball and bocce courts.
The IRS received billions of dollars earlier this year to improve efficiency and increase enforcement under the Inflation Reduction Act
He was also found to have forged millions for luxury vehicles, works of art, country club memberships and homes for his children.
In other examples, Werfel said a restaurant owner gambled hundreds of thousands of dollars out of his business while filing false tax returns.
Another person received more than $5 million in COVID relief loans for sham businesses and then used the money to buy sports cars including Ferraris, Bentleys and Lamborghinis.
The IRS focuses all its efforts on Americans who earn more than $1 million and have a tax debt of more than $250,000.
An earlier memo from the IRS showed that nearly 1,000 taxpayers who earned more than $1 million a year between 2015 and 2020 repeatedly failed to file their tax returns. About 58 of them make at least $10 million, and in total the IRS estimated they were owed $34. billion from May 2023.
Last month, the organization said it had contacted 1,600 millionaires owed more than $250,000 to recover those accounts.
In one case, a former CEO was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay more than $15 million for deducting personal expenses as business expenses, said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel (pictured).
The latest figure of $122 million comes after the IRS already collected $38 million from 175 high earners. It means they have managed to recover a total of $160 million.
Werfel said today: “The funds raised should give you a pretty good idea of how much money is on the table to go and raise.”
Officials now plan to bring a new focus to tackling major companies that have evaded duties.
The agency will target U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies that sell in America but do not pay the proper taxes on their profits.
New accountants will join the IRS in early 2023 and are expected to begin conducting 60 audits of some of the largest corporate taxpayers.