Grover Norquist, the founder and CEO of Americans for Tax Reform, argued on Newsmax that The New York Times was parroting Democrat talking points when stating the hiring of 87,000 Internal Revenue Service employees would only target wealthy Americans and businesses for audits — not working families.
Speaking to "Spicer & Co." on Tuesday, Norquist decried that notion.
Norquist says when Republicans asked for a vote not to increase audits on Americans making less than $250,000 a year, "the Democrats voted it down."
"The New York Times," Norquist continued, "is quoting the advocates of Biden's position saying, 'Oh, you know, I bet they won't [audit Americans making less than $400,000 per year], because they say they won't.'"
Norquist added: "The IRS's own material they were putting out was that they were going to increase audits on small businesses, self-employed people dramatically. That's their target audience. The $600 of money coming in through Venmo; billionaires don't send $600 in Venmo to themselves or conduct their business that way. That's middle-income Americans getting screwed by the IRS.
"And it is The New York Times assuming that the rhetoric of Biden is correct; it's not what the law says. ... That's not what the law says."
What the law states, according to the IRS, is that anyone who received payment of more than $600 for selling goods or services using a third-party app, such as Zelle or Venmo, will receive a 1099-K tax form starting in Jan 2023.
As the Times stated, however, the IRS "is committed to not raise audit rates for households making under $400,000 a year."
But according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the measures in the Inflation Reduction Act, which the Congressional Budget Office has said would actually increase the deficit till 2026, would target between 27% and 90% of Americans making less than $400,000 per year for audits.
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