The top 1% of taxpayers account for approximately $163 billion of the country’s estimated $600 billion annual gap between taxes owed and taxes paid, Treasury official says.
The top 1% of taxpayers account for approximately $163 billion of the country’s estimated $600 billion annual gap between taxes owed and taxes paid, wrote Natasha Sarin, deputy assistant secretary for economic policy.
Sarin pointed to research last year about who accounted for unpaid taxes. “Estimated unpaid taxes are calculated by applying these percentages to [tax year] 2019 tax-gap estimates. The distribution of the tax gap across the income spectrum is difficult to estimate, especially at very top incomes,” she said in a footnote.
Sarin is a former University of Pennsylvania law professor who’s studied how much more money could be coming to federal government’s coffers with more audits targeting the rich. Earlier this year, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told lawmakers “we do get out-gunned” when trying to make sure rich taxpayers are paying their full tax bill. At that same hearing, Rettig estimated the government could be missing out on up to $1 trillion in taxes every year.