Uncollected Taxes Could Eliminate the Deficit

Last week, the IRS announced that their analysis of the period 2008-2010 showed there was on average an estimated $458 billion in annual uncollected taxes in that time frame, with about $400 billion coming from underreporting income.  Admittedly, this is only an estimate and there are reasons for the agency to overstate this number, in order to show more money is needed for enforcement, or understate it, in order to show they are doing a good job in collections. But it is worth noting that, if that amount of additional taxes had been collected, we would have been running an annual budget surplus in 2008 as we would have last year in 2015. Yes, I know everyone hates the IRS, but if you are interested in bringing down our national debt, (in which case I hope you have been reading my Reality Check series), you really should be supporting expanded efforts to collect all the taxes owed. After all, the individuals and corporations not paying their fair share are the real “takers” in our country.