Summary
The IRS anticipates a $500 billion revenue loss as taxpayers increasingly skip filings following cuts from Elon Musk under Trump.
The IRS, set to downsize by 20% by May 15, has seen increased online chatter about avoiding taxes, with individuals betting auditors won’t scrutinize accounts.
Experts warned that workforce reductions could cripple the agency’s efficiency.
Treasury officials predict a 10% drop in tax receipts compared to 2024.
Former IRS commissioners have criticized the cuts, warning of dysfunction and reduced collection capacity.
No it’s not. Not paying your taxes and using public services is more arguably theft.
We have few public services and the few that we have are being torn down as you read this comment, so they might be half right for the wrong reasons.
So you enjoy killing people. Got you. Because that’s what your tax money is used for. To fund wars halfway across the globe. For people you’ve never met and who have caused you no harm.
What a disingenuous take. Surely you can see how no one’s going to take that message seriously, and no one will be convinced?
Taxes also pay for health care, roads, libraries, arts, and countless other things. Do you hate health care, roads, libraries, and art? I mean, maybe, but I wouldn’t be confident about guessing that based solely on your position on taxation.
None of this is supporting your initial claim of “taxation is theft”
Oh yes, because the United States has such great healthcare that a CEO was shot in broad daylight on the streets of New York. But a couple of months ago. As for roads and libraries and such, that’s what state taxes are for. Mind you, I somewhat disagree with state taxation as well, but at least state taxation benefits you directly.
You have an issue with capitalism not taxation and that’s ignoring the fact that if we reverted back to pre 1940 tax schemes we would be taking in more money and only the richest people in America would pay a dime.
Cut 99% of the government, and you could accomplish that. If nothing else, you could always eliminate the income tax and put consumption taxes on goods besides groceries and housing. An income tax disincentivizes making more income, but a consumption tax would disincentivize needless consumption.
Are you Elon Musk? Because “cut 99% of the government” is the kind of uninformed ass-pull I would epxect from him.
Consumption taxes on goods is extremely regressive. That will tremendously impact the poor.
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Oh yes, because eliminating groceries and housing from the consumption tax hurts the poor so badly because the poor need to buy five cars and ten yachts, etc.
I honestly have no idea what you’re trying to say. No one is talking about poor people buying five cars and yachts. I’m talking about how when you’re poor, and you’re trying to make what little you have cover (for example) clothing, paying $10 in taxes is a bigger portion, and thus hurts more, than if you were rich and had to pay the same tax.
Do you know how money works? How the more money you have, the less each dollar matters?
You’re like 70 percent water, can we remove that and expect you to function?
That is irrelevant to your claim of “Taxation is theft”. Taxes pay for programs like medicare, medicaid, and social security, which are extremely popular.
Pushing stuff down to the state level makes coordination difficult, some projects impossible, and again is irrelevant to your argument that taxation is theft
If taxes pay for Social Security, then why do I keep hearing that Social Security is bankrupt or will be by like 2031? If pushing taxation down to the state level makes a project impossible to do, then perhaps that project should not have been done to begin with.
Because conservatives have been trying to kill social security since its inception. It shouldn’t really be in any danger of insolvency, barring conservative sabotage. A trivial search finds many articles about this: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/retirement/social-security-bankrupt/
This is clearly pants on head stupid. Postal service. Interstate transit systems. Weather forecasting. Just off the top of my head.
And again, one more time, you haven’t backed up your initial claim that “Taxation is theft”.
Taxation is theft simply because you did not agree to it or you did not have a choice but to agree to it. The only difference between the IRS demanding taxes from you and a street criminal demanding part of your paycheck every month not to hurt you is that you see the IRS as legitimate where you see the street criminal as a criminal. But they are both criminals.
You have a choice, go somewhere government isn’t but I guarantee you choose not to.
Why are they both criminals? What law are they going breaking? I think the IRS, as part of the sovereign government of the US, cannot really be criminal. I think that’s getting into some like philosophy of “what is the state?” stuff though, which is beyond my expertise.
You seem to be rejecting the whole idea of social contracts and representative government. Which, ok, but that’s going against quite a long history.
That’s just an argument that the military budget should be dramatically reduced (absolutely agree!), not that taxation is a problem in general.
Can’t fund the military without taxation. If you told citizens to donate to support a war effort halfway across the globe that has no impact on their daily lives, they’d be absolutely certain to do it. /s. Now, coerce them with the threat of being thrown in a cage, or at the barrel of a gun, and that’s different.
Yes, but you CAN have taxation without funding the military. You’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I don’t think taxation is the only way to do this, but you do need some kind of process for ensuring common social services and infrastructure exist and are maintained. Taxation is what we have now. How would you support those services without it?
If you absolutely must have taxation, then have state taxation. Because I don’t see the state of Texas declaring war on Pakistan.
How would you fund federal services?
Seems to me the problem isn’t taxation, it’s the process for deciding how that government spending is distributed…
You can’t fix that problem. The fact that there is a big pile of money there means that greedy people will attempt to get their hands on it. No matter what. So the only way to fix that is to not have the big pile of money sitting there to begin with.
So… you think that: a) you can’t change the way government spends money, but b) you can change the way government receives money?
That’s an interesting world view.
So you do not like educated people? Because that is what taxes are used for.
There are these things called homeschools or small community schools. Also, if you are a D-I-N-K type family, why should you have to pay for somebody else’s children?
Because as a dink, other people’s children will serve as your lawyers, nurses, firemen, governor’s, mailmen, cable guy whatever for at least half of your life. You contribute nothing to the next gen except those taxes. Other people are providing the workers, while you benefit from their unpaid labor of raising children. Only dumb dumbs don’t see the value in contributing to education, especially since a lot of they themselves benefited from that exact education or free access to libraries and other social services
Homeschooling isn’t effective. Community schools need funding and a guaranteed level of education. Also yes, if you are a DINK you should
Not in my country. What? You forgot the USA wasn’t the only country in the world?
It seems like you have a problem with capitalism, not with the concept of taxes.
So you don’t like education? Because that is what taxes are used for.
Parents should be allowed to homeschool their children, not send them to government-funded indoctrination camps. Also, if you are a D.I.N.K. family, why exactly should you have to pay for other people’s children?
Because living with educated people is better than not.