IRS collects more than $1 billion in back taxes from wealthy under Biden's IRA

July 11 (UPI) -- The Treasury Department and the IRS announced Thursday they have collected more than $1 billion has been collected in past-due taxes from high-income, high-wealth Americans.

The collections were made possible under the Biden administration Inflation Reduction Act, the agencies said in a joint statement .

"President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is increasing tax fairness and ensuring that all wealthy taxpayers pay the taxes they owe, just like working families do," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "A new initiative to collect overdue taxes from a small group of wealthy taxpayers is already a major success, yielding more than $1 billion in revenue so far."

In 2023 the IRS began the tax-collecting initiative on taxes owed by rich people, concentrating on those who have income of more than $1 million and have more than $250,000 in past-due taxes.

In January that effort overseen by dozens of senior IRS employees reached more than $520 million in collections from a combination of high-income individuals, large corporations and complex partnerships.

The IRS said more than 900 revenue officers were deployed to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes owed by 1,600 high-income taxpayers.

"Prior to President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented the IRS from keeping pace with increasing complexity and ensuring that wealthy taxpayers, large corporations, and complex partnerships pay taxes owed under current law," the Treasury said.

In addition to the targeting of high-income tax delinquents, the IRS said within the past two years it has started a campaign to collect taxes owed by 125,000 wealthy earners who haven't filed taxes in years.

The agency has also done audits of 76 of the largest partnerships with average assets of $10 billion that includes hedge funds, large law firms, real estate investment partnerships and publicly traded partnerships.

Audits have also been launched of 60 corporate taxpayers with average assets of $24 billion. The IRS added that a new regulatory initiative has been started to close a major tax loophole "exploited by large, complex partnerships that could raise more than $50 billion in revenue over 10 years."

The Treasury Department said as these efforts are underway, the enforcement efforts are consistent with Secretary Yellen's commitment to not increase audit rates for people making less than $400,000 per year.