$300 Billion in Uncollected Taxes?
Wow, check this out… The gap between what taxpayers owe and what they’ll actually pay this year is $300 billion — an average of $2,680 per household. That’s a whole lot of money. In fact…
It would more than cover the federal deficit for a year or the extra money President Bush wants in 2007 and 2008 for Iraq and Afghanistan.
or…
It would pay for the $125 billion that Congress has agreed to spend on Hurricane Katrina relief, with enough left for three years worth of federal education programs.
I wonder how much of this is due to honest mistakes vs. outright tax evasion.
[Source: MSNBC]
Filed under: Taxes
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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6 Responses to “$300 Billion in Uncollected Taxes?”
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March 7th, 2007 at 10:33 am
That would buy me a decent house I think.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Oops, this is my bad. I forgot to carry the 2 in the billions column on my 1040.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
This is the same bogus news item that the irs spews out every year to justify Congress giving them a budget increase. If anything I pay more than I owe so that my ratios don’t attract an audit.
I’m so ready for the fairtax!
March 7th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
What a joke! The IRS sends this crap out every year just before April 15th. You’ll also see a bunch of news about them go after honest Americans and throwing them in jail, ‘because they didn’t pay their fair share’. I call BS! HEY CONGRESS! STOP SPENDING SOOOOO MUCH OF MY HARD EARNED MONEY! YOU SUCK!
March 7th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Your choices for explanation are too limited. People end up with unpaid taxes because they underwithhold so as to have money to pay mortgage or credit card debt; to try to keep a struggling business afloat by deferring employment taxes; or incur taxes on stock options that tank or withdrawals from retirement savings to pay current bills. There are a thousand stories out there, and bankruptcy lawyers hear lots of them.
Cathy Moran
March 8th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Is that the difference between what people have claimed as owing on the tax returns and what is actually paid? In that case I’d guess that its lost because people are bankrupt.
Otherwise, it must be the difference between what they think people should be reporting and what is actually paid and I’d love to know how they work out what people should actually be reporting (and presumably aren’t).