Plus, Biden admin awards funding for 166 infrastructure projects
â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â [The Fisc]( Â Â By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Happy Thursday! The House is poised to pass Democratsâ big climate, health care and tax plan tomorrow. Hereâs what else is happening. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (Reuters) Yellen to IRS: Do Not Increase Middle-Class Audits
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed the Internal Revenue Service not to increase its audit rate on households earning less than $400,000 per year. In a [letter]( to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig dated Wednesday, Yellen said that âmuch-needed fundingâ that will flow to the tax agency as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act â about $80 billion over 10 years, assuming the bill passes the House later this week as expected â will be used âto improve taxpayer service, modernize outdated technological infrastructure, and increase equity in the tax system by enforcing the tax laws against those high-earners, large corporations, and complex partnerships who today do not pay what they owe.â She also said that not increasing the audit rate on households earning less than $400,000 (a group that sometimes passes for middle-class in Washington) has been âa guiding preceptâ for the IRS as it plans how to spend the additional funding it expects to receive in the coming years, including roughly $45 billion designated for enforcement. The IRS plan: âSpecifically, I direct that any additional resourcesâincluding any new personnel or auditors that are hiredâshall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,â Yellen wrote. âThis means that, contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited.â Instead, Yellen says that additional enforcement capabilities will focus on âhigh-end noncompliance,â which requires far more time and attention than that given to typical middle- and working-class tax returns. âThis is challenging work that requires a team of sophisticated revenue agents in place to spend thousands of hours poring over complicated returns, and it is also work that has huge revenue potential: indeed, an additional hour auditing someone making more than $5 million annually generates an estimated $4,500 of additional taxes collected,â she wrote. Ultimately, it means that average taxpayers will face less scrutiny, Yellen said. "For regular taxpayers ... the result of this resource infusion will be a lower likelihood of audit by an agency that has the data and technological infrastructure in place to target enforcement resources where they belongâon the high end of the income distribution, where the top 1% alone is estimated to not be paying $160 billion in owed taxes each year,â Yellen wrote. âThatâs important as a matter of revenue-raising, but itâs also essential as a matter of fairness.â Responding to wild claims: The move comes amid grossly exaggerated claims by Republicans that the IRS will use its additional funding to harass middle-class households and small businesses with a ânew army of 87,000 IRS agents,â as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) put it earlier this week, using language that is popular within the GOP. While unlikely to quell what appear to be politically motivated attacks, Yellenâs letter does add to the pile of documents attempting to refute Republicansâ anti-IRS fear-mongering. Evaluating McCarthyâs claim about that terrifying IRS army, Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler [gave]( the GOP leader a three Pinocchio rating â meaning the statement is âmostly false.â The 87,000-person force will not be appearing on the horizon any time soon â in fact, it is unlikely ever to assemble. The figure is drawn from a year-old Treasury report that estimates that the IRS could use extra funding to hire about 7,000 to 12,000 people per year to make up for the many cuts in personnel over the last decade, as well as to fill in for the many IRS employees who will be retiring. Kessler notes that more than half of the IRSâs 82,000 employees â a total of 50,000 workers â will be eligible to retire in the next five years. On top of that, there is no concrete plan to hire 87,000 people, with that number being just a rough estimate. And whatever new hires the agency does make, many wonât be auditors and instead will be focused on implementing new technology and improving customer service. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, put it in more direct terms, however partisan, framing the new funding as a necessary part of rebuilding the tax agency. âYou are being lied to. There's no army of 87,000 new IRS agents. It's made up,â he [wrote]( on Twitter. âThe GOP hollowed out the IRS & slashed its budgets. Rich tax cheats run wild, meanwhile you can't even get someone from the IRS on the phone. We are restoring the agency so it actually works for you.â Biden Admin Awards $2.2 Billion in Funding for 166 Infrastructure Projects
The Biden administration on Thursday announced 166 new grants totaling more than $2.2 billion for transportation infrastructure projects. The grants come from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, which the administration says has seen its funding more than doubled as the result of $7.5 billion over five ears provided by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Projects in rural and urban areas will each get half of the funding, the administration said, while nearly two-thirds of the projects are in poor or historically disadvantaged communities. The largest grants were for $25 million, and 18 projects received that amount. âWe are proud to support so many outstanding infrastructure projects in communities large and small, modernizing Americaâs transportation systems to make them safer, more affordable, more accessible, and more sustainable,â Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. âUsing funds from President Bidenâs Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this year we are supporting more projects than ever before.â Roll Callâs Niels Lesniewski [notes]( that the administration chose to highlight some projects in key midterm election battleground states, with Buttigieg slated to appear in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, with Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and other state Democrats. Buttigieg and other officials plan to hold events at other award sites this month to highlight the benefits of the infrastructure law. You can read about the 166 infrastructure projects receiving grants [here](. Number of the Day: $3.99
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. fell to $3.99 a gallon, AAA [announced]( Thursday, the first time since March that prices have fallen below $4. After peaking at $5.02 a gallon in June, retail gas prices have now fallen for 58 days in a row â a big factor in the drop in the inflation rate in July. [According to]( The New York Timesâ Isabella Simonetti, the lower prices are the result of multiple factors, including a significant decline in oil prices on the global market, reduced demand at the retail level due to painfully high prices for many consumers and a temporary suspension of fuel taxes in some states. News - [Big Climate Bill: Spending Green Bucks to Boost Green Energy]( â Associated Press
- [A Victory at Whose Expense? Climate Activists Grapple With Political Compromise]( â Washington Post
- [Group With GOP Ties Targets Liberals on Democratic Spending Bill]( â Washington Post
- [Biden Administration Announces New Projects From Bipartisan Infrastructure Law]( â Roll Call
- [Historians Privately Warn Biden That Americaâs Democracy Is Teetering]( â Washington Post
- [US Wholesale Inflation Fell in July for 1st Time in 2 Years]( â Associated Press
- [Addressing Social Securityâs Funding Woes Will Take Political Compromise, Biden Nominee to Advisory Board Says]( â CNBC
- [CDC Ends Recommendations for Social Distancing and Quarantine for Covid-19 Control]( â CNN
- [Monkeypox Vaccine Maker Voices Concerns on U.S. Dose-Splitting Plan]( â Washington Post
- [Postal Service Plans to Hike Prices for Holidays]( â The Hill
- [FCC Rescinds Nearly $1 Billion in Space X Subsidies for Rural Broadband]( â The Hill
- [An Unusual Deal Gave Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin $8.5 Million in Stock. He Paid $0 in Tax on It]( â NBC News
- [âTheyâve Been Killingâ Our Marines: Inside the Long Push to Aid Camp Lejeune Victims]( â Roll Call Views and Analysis - [Hyperbolic GOP Claims About IRS Agents and Audits]( â Glenn Kessler, Washington Post
- [Kevin McCarthyâs Mostly False Claim About an Army of 87,000 IRS Agents]( â Jon Greenberg, PolitiFact
- [Republicans Are Outraged at Joe Biden for Accurately Describing the Economy]( â Jordan Weissmann, Slate
- [The Climate Bill Isnât Perfect, but Itâs Still a Major Victory]( â Jody Freeman, New York Times
- [The Collapsing Clean-Energy Transition]( â Gabrielle Gurley, American Prospect
- [Democrats Need to Sell a Health Package That Doesn't Kick In Right Away]( â Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
- [Democrats Are Saving Families a Lot of Money on Health Care. Itâs a Big Deal]( â Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
- [Letâs Honor Social Securityâs 87th Anniversary by Strengthening and Expanding It]( â Max Richtman, The Hill
- [Sorry, Democrats. The Inflation Problem Is Far From Over]( â Henry Olsen, Washington Post
- [Come On, Bernie. Admit Joe Manchin Outmaneuvered You]( â Charles Lane, Washington Post
- [Climate Bill Alone Won't Halve US Emissions by 2030]( â Eduardo Porter, Bloomberg
- [The Fedâs Damage to the Housing Market May Last Years]( â Allison Schrager, Bloomberg
- [Learning, Relearning, and Not Learning the Lessons of COVID-19]( â Daniel M. Gerstein, The Hill
- [How the CDC Can Build Trust Around Monkeypox Shots]( â Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg Copyright © 2022 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved.
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