Elizabeth Warren praises IRS as they collect additional $1 BILLION going after American 'tax cheats'

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren praised the IRS for collecting an additional $1 billion in tax revenues with a crackdown on Americans who she called "tax cheaters." The agency beefed up its enforcement standards, hired more staff, and vied to tax more wealthy Americans.  

The IRS targeted 1,600 taxpayers with more than $1 million in income per year and owed over $250,000 in tax debt. The IRS underwent a $60 billion modernization initiative to crack down on these Americans. Warren posted online about the government taking more money from those affected by the effort, per the New York Times.

"Democrats boosted IRS funding, and it's already gotten back $1 BILLION from millionaire tax cheats. Republicans want to cut IRS funding again to protect their rich tax-dodging buddies - no way," Warren said.  

The $60 billion IRS expansion was part of Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act enacted in August of 2022. The federal agency is now focused on finding over 100,000 wealthy people that the IRS thinks have not paid taxes this year. In its achievement of receiving $1 billion more in tax revenue from wealthy Americans, the IRS has spent $5.7 billion of the $60 billion set aside for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act.  

IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with the agency's expanded enforcement staff it has had the ability to track people down and send letters to them demanding that they pay more out of pocket. The commissioner said he believed people were not paying taxes because they thought the IRS would not go after them. “Our message for these taxpayers is that now that we are resourced, we can do the job of ensuring that they pay," he stated.