I hate to further any potentially political discussion, but the IRS really isn’t the problem. It’s Congress that writes the tax code which the IRS has to enforce.
Over many years Congress has starved the IRS so they have less resources to enforce the laws and bring in revenue.
Years ago I read the IRS often goes after companies with 15 employees or less because small businesses don’t have the resources to hire teams of tax attorneys (at one point GE had 1000 tax lawyers on staff - how can the IRS compete with that?)
I also believe that major companies tax shelter/money movement schemes are so convoluted that the IRS doesn’t have the manpower to even figure out much of what was constructed to evade paying into the system.
If were in Congress, I’d give the IRS more resources to have large teams dedicated to each multinational to determine what they owe, not what they claim.
I believe the IRS has in the past audited restaurants and charged tax based on the amount of food/supplies they order and charge tax based on what money they think was made. They have done this to waiters as well, billing them for what the IRS believes they made in tips, which the waiters claim they did not make that much.
If this principle were applied to taxing huge corporations, I think many of us would be in a better place.
Many years ago I was audited because the IRS calculations differed from my brokerage firm by $500. The agent spent days, even coming to home based video post production studio (I deduct a lot of gear). In the end I settled with them for $250. I found they agent to be nice, professional and reasonable, though I felt it was a huge waste of resources for $250.
Years ago there was an uproar because someone leaked an internal motivational video produced by the IRS that was a fun spoof on Star Treck. While people seem outraged at their tax dollars being spent on that, myself having done many films for companies, including an elaborate Star Wars spoof, and knowing how the employees love seeing their coworkers in the films, felt it was a useful and inexpensive way of making employees feel better about their IRS job. I can only imagine an IRS employee at a bar or party and someone asks what they do for a living, then politely excuse themself. Who wants to talk to an IRS employee?
