Cartoon

Popular Plans

Written by SK Ashby

(Cartoonist - Mike Luckovich)

In other news, federal health officials have recommended a pause on using the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine while guidelines for treating potential blood clots is drafted.

Meanwhile, President Biden says the United States now has a enough vaccine doses -- about 600 million -- for every eligible person. The pause on J&J's vaccine won't effect supplies.

Finally, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig says we're missing out on up to $1 trillion in taxes every year because of poor enforcement.

Rettig told the Senate Finance Committee that the “tax gap” -- the difference between taxes legally owed and revenue collected -- has grown substantially since the last official estimate of a $441 billion annual average from 2011 to 2013.

New sources of wealth arising since then, such as trading in cryptocurrencies, were escaping taxation, he said, as was rising foreign-sourced income and abuses of business income passed through as personal income.

“If you add those in, I think it would not be outlandish, that the actual tax gap could approach, and possibly exceed $1 trillion” on an annual basis, Rettig said.

If he's even close to right, this should be a priority. Biden's infrastructure spending proposal does call for more enforcement and more funding for the IRS.

It's not working class people escaping taxes. You have to be rich in the first place to take advantage of these big gaps.