comment: >
  
  
  Asked about the debate with Congress over raising the debt ceiling, Yellen simply puts her hand to her forehead and sighs.
  
  The House Republican circus is already off to a raucous start. Better buy aspirin in the big bottle.
context: "Yellen told Reuters that she was thrilled that Congress had approved $80 billion in new funding to help the agency reduce a huge backlog of tax returns and better hunt down $600 billion in unpaid tax bills." >
  
  Bad take >
  
  Don't worry I'll add the /s for them >
  
  "The law also includes about $270 billion in tax credits for electric vehicles, home solar panels and other climate purchases that will be overseen by Treasury, which has made Yellen a pivotal climate figure in President Joe Biden's administration." >
  
  
  $270 billion in tax credits for electric vehicles
  
  Great. Just what we needed, more donations to the wealthy. >
  
  An internal combustion engine creates greenhouse gases no matter who's driving it >
  
  Totally agree the current form of the IRS is a disaster.  Way to complicated and only benefits the rich and powerful. >
  
  can we just not have us all do our own taxes anymore it's annoying >
  
  *H&R Block and TurboTax have enter the chat*
  Congress: "SORRY? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF ALL THESE MONEY CANNONS GOING OFF!" >
  
  It should be a failure of duty for them to target the poor over the rich just because it's easier for them >
  
  They don't "target" anyone. Lower income people getting audited more comes mostly from two things: lower income people are more likely to add things to their returns that get them flagged, and the IRS being underfunded for almost two decades has led to them not being able to hire/keep more highly trained agents that can process more complicated returns. However, even if you fix number two, number one will still mean they'll get audited more, just to a lesser extent. >
  
  I think “target” is an appropriate word here. Auditing poor people because you don’t have the agents or time to go after the complicated returns IS targeting. >
  
  They're not auditing "poor people" because of the lack agents. They're auditing them because it's their job. >
  
  I don’t understand why that is the default position. If a place is short staffed there are there are many places they can cut. How about cut audits equally? >
  
  It's not a matter of cutting audits, it's about having staff at that level that can do the work. Also, the IRS has been underfunded for a very long time and every department doesn't have enough people. That money that they just got is going to go everywhere in the agency. The media just likes to focus on audits to get people to click. >
  
  It's a lot easier to match 1099s and W2s than it is to audit a Schedule C or Schedule K or any other entity type return including a 1065, 1120 S or 1120 C. 
  A computer does the matching, then puts the discrepancies on the auditor's desk.
  The auditor follows up on the discrepancies.
  It's a matter of the matching program that forces the audit because the computer system keeps track of the matching.  The majority are people who only file these forms W2 or 1099.
  The other issue with automatic filing is the facts and circumstances that change for taxpayers, including who divorce and/or have children.
  Because of little or no broadband in many rural areas, many of these forms have to be paper filed.
  Also,  it's against some people's religion to use digital property.