It hardly received the attention it deserves, but more than a month and a half ago, Pro Publica revealed that they have a large number of IRS records Reveal the tax returns of the wealthiest people in some countries. The Department of Justice is investigating leaks (and they should), but Pro Publica is a very left-leaning news organization that borders progressive propaganda and believes that leaks are in the national interest.
ProPublica has obtained a large amount of US Internal Revenue Service data, covering the tax returns of thousands of the richest people in the country for more than 15 years. These data provide an unprecedented insight into the financial life of American giants, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and Mark Zuckerberg. It not only shows their income and taxes, but also shows their investments, stock transactions, gambling bonuses and even audit results.
All in all, it breaks the myth of the cornerstone of the American tax system: everyone pays a fair share, and the richest Americans pay the most. The IRS records show that the wealthiest people can-completely legally-pay income taxes, and this is only a small part of the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in their annual wealth growth.
Pro Publica stated that they obtained the data after publishing an article “censoring” the IRS, but refused to disclose how they obtained the records, which sparked strong protests that the records may be part of an illegal leak. Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to investigate the leak. His priority, But Senate Republicans are already concerned about the lack of details and the progress of the investigation, and have written to FBI request information. They also warned Possible hearing On this matter.
“The self-reporting nature of our tax system makes taxpayers believe that their personal information will be respected and kept confidential when complying with our country’s tax laws. This is crucial. In return, the government must protect their records to maintain this trust. The Internal Revenue Law attaches great importance to the privacy of taxpayers to the extent that criminal and civil penalties are imposed on unauthorized access or disclosure of this information,” the senator wrote.
Now a Republican representative, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, who serves on the powerful fundraising committee, is said to be Leaking incident “infuriated” Records to reporters, and are pushing the Democratic Party to plan to provide $80 billion to the IRS within 10 years as part of the payment for its infrastructure supporting plan.
Democrats believe that the funding proposal will level the competition by authorizing the IRS to crack down on wealthy Americans who deceive the system. The agency has hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes that are not collected each year, but if the agency gets more funding, estimates of how much tax the agency will collect vary widely.
In an interview last week, Mr. Kelly said that he did not see a reason why the plan worked, and that the agency did not share details of how to spend the additional funds.
“Do they need more money? I don’t know. I have seen someone put forward a plan saying: This is what we need, this is where we need it. By the way, this is outdated and we no longer do it. “Mr. Kelly said.
The Pro Publica leak is attracting more and more attention, and Democrats tend to use the media to justify their out-of-control spending and other unpopular policy positions.
