美国国家公共电台 NPR On Tax Day, The IRS Is Short Of Money

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. You might know this already. Today is Tax Day. But there is little encouragement for last-minute tax filers this April 15. Your chance of being audited¹ by the IRS this year is as low as it has been in decades. Years of budget cuts have hollowed out enforcement of the nation's tax laws. Now even the Trump² administration says those cuts may have gone too far. Here's more from NPR's Scott Horsley.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE³: The IRS is responsible for collecting about $3.5 trillion in taxes every year. But the agency's being asked to do that job with fewer dollars of its own. Chuck Marr, who studies tax policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says adjusted for inflation, IRS funding's been cut by about 25 percent since the beginning of the decade, and staffing for tax enforcement has fallen by nearly 1/3.

CHUCK MARR: Right now we have about the same number of auditors⁴ at the IRS that we had back in the 1950s when the economy was at 1/7 the size.

HORSLEY: The IRS has always been something of a political punching bag. But the deep cuts began in 2010 when Republicans took control of the House, as GOP Congressman⁵ Dave Joyce of Ohio acknowledged last week.

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DAVE JOYCE: I know that when we were in the majority that we took great pleasure in cutting the amount of money that was going to the IRS every year.

HORSLEY: The IRS was an easy target. After all, the agency was the enforcer of the Affordable⁶ Care Act, which Republicans despise. There were charges the IRS unfairly penalized⁷ conservative groups that tried to apply for nonprofit status. And even in the best of times, people don't have warm and fuzzy feelings about the tax collector, says Mark Mazur, who was assistant Treasury⁸ secretary for tax policy during the Obama administration.

MARK MAZUR: It was always a concern among Americans that you have the jack-booted thugs coming into your business or office or home and auditing⁹ away.

HORSLEY: Over time, both the criticism and the budget cuts have taken a toll¹⁰. Tony Reardon, who heads the union representing IRS agents, says morale¹¹ of the agency is down. Experienced agents are headed for the exits, and less than 3 percent of the IRS workforce¹² is under 30.

TONY REARDON: The IRS has essentially¹³ lost an entire generation of employees. When you look at pay freezes, retirement¹⁴ cuts, government shutdowns, it makes it incredibly difficult to recruit and retain new talent.

HORSLEY: With the IRS cutting back sharply on tax enforcement, the federal government is leaving money it's owed by taxpayers¹⁵ on the table. According to ProPublica, the number of individual audits¹⁶ fell 42 percent between 2010 and 2017. Florida Congressman Charlie Crist complains IRS scrutiny¹⁷ of taxpayers making more than $500,000 a year dropped more sharply than audits of those making under $200,000.

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CHARLIE CRIST: This clearly indicates a policy shift of some sort, cracking down on people who have little and going easier on people who are doing very, very well.

HORSLEY: Now after nearly a decade of cutting, the Trump administration is calling for a course correction. Trump has suggested sidestepping budget caps to spend an extra $362 million on tax enforcement next year. The new IRS Commissioner¹⁸ Charles Rettig says that additional spending is necessary to reassure¹⁹ Americans that tax cheats stand a good chance of getting caught.

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CHARLES RETTIG: Personally, I have both eyes focused on enforcement.

HORSLEY: Rettig notes the vast majority of Americans, 83 percent, already pay the taxes they owe voluntarily. But if a more visible cop on the beat could boost compliance²⁰ by just one percentage point, that would mean an extra $30 billion a year in revenue for the government. On the other hand, Mark Mazur warns, government revenues could take an equally big hit if the lack of enforcement were to trigger even a small drop in Americans' willingness to pay.

MAZUR: Americans don't really want to feel like chumps, and so they want to make sure that everybody's paying their fair share.

HORSLEY: Trust in the tax system takes a long time to develop. If it looks like tax cheats are getting away with it, that trust can evaporate very quickly. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

1 audited   

v.审计，查账( audit的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The accounts have to be audited by a firm of external auditors. 这些账目必须由一家外聘审计员的公司来稽查。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• E. g. few if any charities collection publishes audited accounts. 例如很少义款收集有公布经过查核的帐目。 来自互联网

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 auditors   

n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生

参考例句：

• The company has been in litigation with its previous auditors for a full year. 那家公司与前任审计员已打了整整一年的官司。
• a meeting to discuss the annual accounts and the auditors' report thereon 讨论年度报表及其审计报告的会议

5 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

6 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

7 penalized   

对…予以惩罚( penalize的过去式和过去分词 )； 使处于不利地位

参考例句：

• You will be penalized for poor spelling. 你拼写不好将会受到处罚。
• Team members will be penalized for lateness. 队员迟到要受处罚。

8 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

9 auditing   

n.审计，查账，决算

参考例句：

• Auditing standards are the rules governing how an audit is performed.收支检查标准是规则统治一个稽核如何被运行。
• The auditing services market is dominated by a few large accounting firms.审计服务市场被几家大型会计公司独占了。

10 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

11 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

12 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

14 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

15 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

16 audits   

n.审计，查账( audit的名词复数 )v.审计，查账( audit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Requires that use of all bond funds is subject to independent audits. 需要使用的所有债券基金是受独立审计。 来自互联网
• Support the locations during customer-visits, audits and quality-improvement programs. 支持客户参观，稽核和提高品质等项目。 来自互联网

17 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

18 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

19 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

20 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。