Top 1% Wealthiest in the US Evade Over 20% of Income Taxes

[Image source= AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] Bloomberg News reported on the 22nd (local time), citing data from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that the top 1% wealthiest Americans did not report more than 20% of their income.

The IRS stated that this was confirmed after randomly selecting and investigating income reports from the top 1% wealthiest individuals. The IRS analyzed that the top 1% have been evading taxes in various ways, and if their income tax were properly collected, government revenue could increase by $175 billion annually.

The IRS also said that the scale of tax evasion by the top 1% was larger than expected and that various measures to prevent tax evasion by high-income earners need to be established.

The budget for the IRS has continued to decrease over the past several years.

IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig appeared before the House last week and said that the IRS has continued to lose key personnel conducting tax audits on the wealthy, which has caused the audit rate on the wealthy to decline over the past decade.

According to a recent report released by the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, the net worth of the top 1% wealthiest Americans increased by about $4 trillion last year. More than one-third of the total newly increased assets last year were concentrated in the top 1% wealthiest individuals.

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