THE IRS IS ABOUT TO UPSET WEALTHY FOLKS, TO USE AI TO TARGET BIGGEST TAX CHEATS
I have no idea what to think about how good or bad AI is now, or will be tomorrow and the coming years. But it’s clearly impossible to ignore, since we use it or are party to it pretty much every day. If you take pictures with your phone, you probably use AI to focus, edit and process your images. AI is pretty much everywhere. But I must say that I’m pleased to hear the latest news of where AI will be used that it hasn’t been before. Or, rather who will be using it: the IRS. That’s right, America’s Internal Revenue Service will be using artificial intelligence to identify wealthy folks who make more than $1 million who don’t dodge paying all their taxes.
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WEALTHY FOLKS WHO USE “SOPHISTICATED SCHEMES TO AVOID TAXES” SHOULD TAKE NOTE
That sounds fine to me, especially as the agency hasn’t been able to field enough human employees to process taxes for years, never mind find all the biggest and wealthiest tax dodgers. And let’s be honest, because of politicians selling to the highest bidder, the IRS hasn’t made a consistent or deep effort to nail the wealthiest folks who somehow manage to avoid paying their fair share year after year. But the IRS is about to start using AI to find people who use “sophisticated schemes to avoid taxes,” as opposed to going after the average Joe with “no-change” audits. In other words, their going after the big bucks missing from government coffers instead of focusing on the middle class and below.
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ROUGHLY 1,600 WEALTHY FOLKS WHO “OWE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS” GONNA FEEL THE PINCH
And by big bucks, I mean seriously big bucks. The IRS will use AI to take a really hard look at 75 of the largest partnerships in the United States, each of which average over $10 billion in assets. That means hedge funds, real estate partnerships and law firms who quite possibly have bent the odd rule here and there into something illegal. They estimate this group includes about 1,600 wealthy folks who may “owe hundreds of millions in dollars in taxes.” And in other welcome IRS news, the agency hired almost 90,000 new full-time staff members, the largest in over 10 long non-tax collecting years.
Get some cheap popcorn ready, because wealthy folks will create some serious drama on the Hill, and soon.
