On March 7th, 2022 the organizations named in the featured image, which includes Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and the Association for Mature American Citizens (AMAC) endorsed a coalition letter that opposed new funding sought by the Biden White House and Democrats. Following the letter, which speaks for itself, will be a focused additional information, comparisons and analysis.
Dear Senator/Representative:
We write in opposition to any increased funding for the IRS in any government funding legislation. Democrats have called for increasing the IRS budget, arguing that the agency’s inability to do its job is due to long-term underfunding. However, the true reason the IRS struggles to perform basic responsibilities is a long history of incompetence, ineptitude, and corruption.
New funding would be a down payment on the Left’s goal to give the IRS $80 billion in new funding to hire 87,000 new agents that will audit and harass American taxpayers. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), head of the Senate Financial Services and General Government Appropriations subcommittee said his panel was considering including $13.6 billion in funding to the IRS, a 14 percent increase. 15 Democrat Senators led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) penned a letter calling for increasing IRS funding by at least 14 percent this year and for passing the $80 billion in new IRS funding in the Left’s Build Back Better (BBB) Act.
This would be a mistake. The IRS has proven it wants to target middle class taxpayers and has also proven it cannot do its current job.
The Left wants to increase IRS funding in order to target middle-class Americans and small businesses to more audits. New IRS enforcement will fall on American families and small businesses, not the “rich.” The wealthy and large corporations already have armies of lawyers and accountants that ensure they legally take advantage of the plethora of credits and deductions offered by the tax code.
The IRS plans to increase small business audits by 50 percent and the IRS funding included in the BBB would lead to 1.2 million more annual IRS audits, about half of which would hit households making less than $75k. IRS “enforcement” funding in BBB was 23 times greater than the amount allocated to “taxpayer services.”
Democrats also want to have the IRS snoop on virtually every American. Specifically, Democrats included in their Build Back Better Act a “comprehensive financial account information reporting regime” to track the withdrawals and deposits of bank accounts, investment accounts, and Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp accounts of American individuals and businesses. This proposal would clearly harm Americans making less than $400,000 per year, despite assurances by the left. It would hit 87 to 134 million Americans earning less than $400,000 per year, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).
The Left even wants to have the IRS create and administer a new, government tax filing and preparation system. This policy, which has long been a pet project of progressives would replace the existing system of voluntary compliance, where Americans are responsible for filling out their own tax returns, with a system where the government assesses and files taxes for Americans.
At best, it would require the IRS to collect more personal data to properly assess taxes. A recent report by the Progressive Policy Institute noted that the IRS currently does not have the information it needs to prepare tax returns for American families especially refundable tax credits claimed by millions of low-income taxpayers.
At worst, it would give the IRS more power to intrude in the lives of Americans and create a strong conflict of interest. Americans barely understand the tax code as it stands. Sixty-five percent think the tax code is too complex, compared to 7 percent that think it is too simple.
The IRS already wastes an immense amount of Taxpayer Funded Union Time (TFUT). In fiscal year 2019, 1,421 Treasury employees consumed 353,820 hours of TFUT. The compensation costs for this time were $17.27 million. Further, individuals on TFUT may freely use government property, a cost amounting to $2.5 million. The IRS union also shovels 97 percent of their money into Democrat campaign coffers. In the 2019-2020 campaign cycle, National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU’s) political action committee raised $838,288. Out of $609,000 in spending on federal candidates, an overwhelming 97.04 percent went to Democrats.
The IRS has also proven it cannot protect taxpayer data. Last year, thousands of Americans’ private taxpayer files were stolen, and several tax documents were published by the progressive news outlet ProPublica to push their own political agenda. More than six months later, the IRS has not provided any substantive response to this scandal.
While this is concerning, it is not the only case where the IRS has failed to protect taxpayer data. For instance, a 2016 TIGTA report found that the IRS had lost track of 1,000 laptops containing sensitive taxpayer data that contract employees used. Similarly, in 2015, hackers stole the personal data of 330,000 taxpayers. Reports indicated that the hackers didn’t use suspected tactics but instead managed to steal data by going through the website and pretending to be regular people filing their taxes.
We urge you to reject any effort to increase the IRS’s budget in any government funding legislation. Any new IRS funding will only be a down payment on the Left’s goal of giving the IRS $80 billion and hiring 87,000 agents to audit and harass middle class families and small businesses.
Sincerely,
Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform
Bob Carlstrom
President, AMAC Action
Dick Patten
President, American Business Defense Council
Phil Kerpen
President, American Commitment
Ryan Ellis
President, Center for a Free Economy
Andrew F. Quinlan
President, Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Jeffrey Mazzella
President, Center for Individual Freedom
Matthew Kandrach
President, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
Adam Brandon
President, FreedomWorks
George Landrith
President, Frontiers of Freedom
Heather R. Higgins
CEO, Independent Women’s Voice
Andrew Langer
President, Institute for Liberty
Seton Motley
President, Less Government
Tom Hebert
Executive Director, Open Competition Center
Lorenzo Montanari
Executive Director, Property Rights Alliance
Bryan Bashur
Executive Director, Shareholder Advocacy Forum
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis
President, 60 Plus Association
Jim Martin
Founder/Chairman, 60 Plus Association
David Williams
President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
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The letter above was obtained from AMAC and ATR. The 2.3 million member AMAC Action describes itself this way.
Support AMAC Action. Our 501 (C)(4) advances initiatives on Capitol Hill, in the state legislatures, and at the local level to protect American values, free speech, the exercise of religion, equality of opportunity, sanctity of life, and the rule of law.
The PDF of the coalition letter is linked as a download here.
Additional Information, MHProNews Analysis and Commentary in Brief
It should go without saying that that more audits and higher taxes tend to impact smaller businesses more than larger ones. That’s true in manufactured housing as well as in other fields. If your state association and/or the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) hasn’t raised this issue – and they clearly haven’t signed onto this coalition letter above – it is a fair question to ask, why not?
It can’t be stressed enough. Some body has to hold MHI accountable to live up to their own claims. Certainly, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) does so on specific issues. They are a producer-specific trade group focused on manufactured housing regulations. By contrast, MHI says the represent ‘all segments’ of the industry.
As an analogy, the Modular Home Building Association’s Tom Hardiman, which is more akin to the umbrella style trade group that MHI is, publicly called out the Biden Administration for the policies that harmed labor-recruitment. Hardiman said the Biden regime was engaged in “political payoffs” the benefited specific favored interest groups, which from their view helped get Biden into the White House.
Per obvious examples like the one below, the case can be made that MHI doesn’t even follow through on those things that they claim they support.
On something as serious as fuel and energy prices, where is MHI?
It has been over a year since Samuel “Sam” Strommen at Knudson Law ripped MHI for posturing in and practically ineffective fashion that benefits a few insider firms to the harm of others, not to mention consumers. Manufactured housing has the laws needed already on the federal books. Long term thinkers need to consider alternatives to represent their interests. Producers can turn to MHARR. But what about non-producers in the post-production sector?
One practical step that thousands of pros who are over 50 should consider is AMAC. Their stance on issues is linked here. Their membership is very low cost and includes money-saving benefits. They provide emailed updates on issues like the one above. They seem to walk their talk, just as MHARR does. It helps in areas that MHI is apparently void in addressing.
But MHProNews remains supportive of the creation of a post-production trade group to partner with MHARR. The press of government at local, state, and federal levels requires a range of supports for a white-hat independent. Investigate those options, because they may prove valuable.
In the meantime, keep checking back here for authentic “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use” where you find demonstrably consistent “Intelligence for your MHLife.”©
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
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