The Internal Revenue Service is cracking down on some of the nation’s wealthiest, as it has recently collected nearly $160 million in back taxes.
The agency shared that the money is part of a recent push to crack down on the nation’s top earners, saying Friday that it had collected $122 million from 100 taxpayers. This was added to the already running tab of $38 million collected from 175 taxpayers collected earlier this year.
One earner had to pay more than $15 million alone, as the IRS said he falsified personal expenses. The individual allegedly used the construction of a 51,000-square-foot mansion, homes for his children, luxury cars, artwork, and more as deductible business expenses.
Another person was sentenced to more than four years in prison after he fraudulently obtained loans designated for COVID relief. The IRS said that he was able to get his hands on $5 million, which he used to purchase several luxury cars.
The 175 high-income earners are only a fraction of the nearly 1,600 individuals that the IRS is in the midst of contacting for hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the US in back taxes, the agency said.
The added enforcement efforts are being credited to the Inflation Reduction Act, which bolstered the IRS.
“Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented the IRS from keeping pace with the increasingly complicated set of tools that the wealthiest taxpayers use to hide their income and evade paying their share,” the agency said in Friday’s press release.
However, thanks to the extra funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS is “taking swift and aggressive action to close this gap,” the agency said.