The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released the latest collection of everything-IRS for the fiscal year ending September 20, 2023. Not surprisingly, it is called the IRS Data Book.
The book covers a lot of ground, including a satisfaction survey that has been used since 1994 to gauge the overall satisfaction of the agency by its primary clientele—the taxpayer. You can take a look at the Data Book or consider some of the following facts and findings regarding the activity of the IRS in the last fiscal year:
- Speaking of taxpayer satisfaction, on average about 78 percent of taxpayers say they are satisfied with the performance of the IRS. Not too bad for a Treasury Agency in place to collect your money.
- In the last fiscal year, the IRS paid out $659 million in tax refunds, which represented a 2.7 percent increase from fiscal year 2022. The IRS website saw more than 880 million visitors last year with more than 303 million hits on the ever-popular site tool, “Where’s My Refund.”
- With the budget boost provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS started to crawl its way back from more than a decade of systemic underfunding. In fiscal year 2023, the IRS saw the hire of 5,800 new employees which boosted the overall worker base by five percent.
- Here are some fun numbers—the amount of individual income tax withheld, added to tax payments, came to approximately $2.6 trillion before the calculation of refunds. The IRS issued 120.9 million individual tax refunds in 2023, which added up to about $461 billion. Regarding business returns, the IRS took in $457 billion in income taxes prior to the payment of business refunds.
- In a positive development for the agency, 90.7 percent of individual tax returns were filed electronically. The agency has been working to ease in electronic filing for several years and to move beyond paper returns which are cumbersome and more likely to cause a backlog.
- States from which the IRS collected the most tax were (in order): California, Texas, and New York. States receiving the largest refunds were California, Texas, and Florida.
- And what about the audits? In 2023, the IRS closed 582,944 tax audits. The examinations yielded an additional $31.9 billion in recommended taxes. Of these tax audits, 13,482 taxpayers (about 2.3 percent) did not agree with the recommendation(s) of the IRS auditor (not as many as one might think).
- During fiscal year 2023, the IRS completed 2,584 criminal tax investigations in three different areas. Those areas are tax crime (979 cases), financial crime (1052 matters), and narcotics associated financial crime (553 cases). There were 1,838 cases referred for prosecution and 746 cases closed without prosecution.
- And the really serious numbers? Of the 1,838 matters referred for prosecution, there were 1,508 convictions, which led to the sentencing of 1,479 tax defendants, 1,167 of which were imprisoned. Overall, the IRS maintained a robust 78.9 percent score for obtaining prison time on its convictions.
With its increased budget, the IRS is doing more with more. If you have concerns about tax fraud, or criminal tax activity, speak with an attorney for the bottom line on options to avoid being a statistic in next year’s IRS:CI Data Book.
Interested in tax strategies to protect your wealth? Call us.
With offices in Cleveland and Chicago, the tax group at Robert J. Fedor, Esq., LLC represents clients interested in offshore tax options, or dealing with questions about business or tax compliance, or tax crime. When you need skilled tax advice locally or abroad, contact us or call 440-250-9709.
