Yellen: Inflation Reduction Act resources aided collection $1.3B from wealthy tax delinquents

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service on Friday said they have collected $1.3 billion from high-income, high-wealth individuals under new initiatives under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Treasury said the IRS had recovered $172 million in taxes owed by wealthy individuals after launching a program in February to track down 125,000 individuals who had not filed taxes since 2017 but received $400,000-$1 million or more in income.

Additionally, The IRS said nearly 80% of 1,600 millionaires that owed taxes had made a payment under an initiative launched in fall 2023 leading to a total of $1.1 billion recovered, up $100 million from a previous update in July.

The Treasury said IRA funding helped facilitate the payment of these taxes as the IRS was previously unable to collect from these individuals due to a lack of resources.

The updates came as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellean and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel were set to speak at the IRS campus in Austin, Texas.

"We've channeled [Inflation Reduction Act] funding toward significant investments to combat tax evasion," Yellen said in prepared remarkes. "The IRS had not had the resources to pursue these wealthy non-filers. Now, it does, and we're making significant progress."

The IRS said its non-filer program had been sporadic since 2016 under the Trump administration because of "severe budget and staff limitations" but has been boosted under the IRA.

"Between 2010 and 2018, the audit rate for millionaires fell by 80%," Yellen said in prepared remarks. "During the previous administration, as audit rates on high-income taxpayers fell, the share of audits on taxpayers with income under $200,000 increased.

"In 2019, the top one percent of Americans was estimated to owe over one-fifth of unpaid taxes, leaving ordinary Americans to shoulder the burden."