Defunding the (Tax) Police

The Trump administration is giving the left wing of the body politic something it’s wanted for a long time, defunding the police, in the form of upheaval at, and withdrawing resources for, the FBI. This is a hilarious twist of irony given the sentiment has always been anathema to conservatives.

While the Bureau’s budget hasn’t changed, downsizing is in the on-deck circle for the nation’s top law enforcement body, and that’s what conservatives decried most about the rudimentary slogan, “defund the police”.

There’s another agency meant to hold people accountable whose headcount is being similarly diminished. I’m referring to the pending reduction in force, as much as 25% of all employees, at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Many will likely be as optimistic about its impending shrinkage as mob dons and terrorists are about the FBI’s. They shouldn’t be, as a libertarian golden age has never manifested as a result of a government kneecapping its ability to collect taxes.

What People Think it Means

I can already hear murmurs on the interwebs from commenters all over the country reveling in their plans to take advantage of the anticipated chaos by not filing and paying their taxes.

Perhaps if the amount of people determined to not pay their taxes reaches a critical mass, the government, hamstrung by a drastic and arbitrary reduction of the scale previously indicated, will not be able to enforce tax laws, and many defiant former taxpayers will successfully fleece Uncle Sam. The implications for the broader economy are dire if that happens, but that’s a subject for another time.

Most people have relatively simple and straightforward tax returns and thus, should they not file or pay, will get caught, eventually if not immediately. Arcane as the American tax code is, most people’s returns can mostly be reviewed automatically, so a skeleton crew of auditors won’t find themselves overwhelmed.

Further, the layoffs are targeting IRS staff who conduct audits of the most complex tax returns, those of the wealthiest people in the country, as well as corporations, partnerships, and the like,, and thus shouldn’t affect the IRS’s ability to discover the ordinary taxpayers who aren’t paying the piper. Not to mention, most people’s taxes are withheld by their employers in advance, so what do wanna-be Al Capones think they’re getting away with? The government will still get taxpayers’ interest free annual loans, content to let most Americans feel like Christmas has come early when they get some of it back after tax day.

What It Really Means

As I alluded to, those who can most easily afford the tax burden, i.e., the rich and powerful, are the ones who will profit the most from a hobbled IRS. High net worth individuals, with incomes and capital gains from a variety of sources, as well as corporations and other entities,with the best paid professionals helping them take advantage of the abundance of obscure tax code loopholes and escape hatches, stand to gain the most from lax enforcement.

The experienced professionals at the IRS the administration is seeking to jettison mostly function to catch conniving tax cheats who rob the government, and by extension their fellow citizens, of the much-needed funds society depends upon to function. These are our fellow citizens with the greatest financial ability, and moral responsibility to pay taxes. This also means they have the most incentive to cheat and abundant resources to do so. They’re of course the ones in a near perpetual state of audit whose vast wealth and income necessitate dedicated resources to ensure they fulfill their tax obligations.

With the U.S. government enthusiastically taking a chainsaw to its own apparatus one of life’s more cruel ironies is put on display; those of lesser means are the most heavily encumbered with paying for the necessary societal stability to maintain our way of life.. Since the wealthy won’t be shouldering that burden, it’ll fall on the middle class to do so.

The late, great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “I like paying taxes, they buy civilization”. With the wealthiest taxpayers better positioned now than they have been in recent memory to not hold up their end of the bargain, civilization is becoming more and more unaffordable.