When congress approved $80 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement division, the intellectually honest crowd knew this was not just about hiring more IRS agents. Indeed, the personnel side of the spending will almost certainly pale in comparison to the IRS creating new technological enforcement mechanisms to track electronic payment systems. Ultimately, it’s just an obvious evolution in IRS monitoring and surveillance.
Today, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seemed to outline exactly that when she sent the IRS a memo instructing them to develop an action plan within six months for how to improve the technology needed to expand enforcement {link}. What we are likely to experience is the next phase in the public-private partnership, this time focused almost exclusively on electronic payment systems, income and earnings.-- More...
