Tax gap reform will stop tax increases

“Some taxpayers shortchange the American people by nearly $300 billion, which is roughly $950 for every man, woman, and child in America,” said Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) at a roundtable discussion to find ways to cut the tax gap. With the financial crisis continuing to drive stocks down and the impending bailout bail threatening America’s national debt levels, he said, it has become more important than ever to ensure taxes are being paid and to collect additional revenue without having to raise taxes in the next administration. The tax gap has not been examined since 2001, when more than $290 billion was not collected.

The discussion panel included the Inspector General, members of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the National Taxpayer Advocate from the Internal Revenue Service, and members of the U.S. Treasury Department. Each panelist discussed seven ideal proposals to close the tax gap. These included the encouragement of more frequent, voluntary estimated tax payments by small businesses, the withholding of payments to noncompliant federal contractors, requiring information reporting by financial institutions about non-interest bearing accounts, reversing matching against state and local tax data, allowing voluntary withholding agreements among independent contractors and service recipients, eliminating the exception to 1099 information reporting for closely held corporations, and improvement of the IRS’s data collection infrastructure. Carper has not specifically advocated any one of these proposals and believes that “no single approach, alone, will work.” Carper encouraged the participants of the discussion to “think outside the box for new solutions.”