Is the IRS Racist?

An AARP volunteer helps a man fill out his taxes (photo: Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS)

If you are a minority, you might want to take extra care filling out your taxes this April. Apparently, the Internal Revenue Service is gunning for you.

According to a study released on Thursday, African-Americans and Hispanics are twice as likely to get hit by an enforcement action from the IRS than the average US citizen. What’s worse, according to the study, is that in at least some of the instances minorities are being unfairly targeted:

Some minorities hit with IRS enforcement actions don’t owe any taxes and indeed might be entitled to a refund.  Nevertheless, the IRS still garnishes their wages, imposes tax liens, and levies their bank accounts which often costs them their jobs, ruins their credit ratings, and forces them into the underground cash economy.

The study comes from TaxLifeboat, a website that works with people who have run afoul of the IRS. According to Fortune.com, which first wrote about the study, TaxLifeboat’s CEO Thomas Evans says the rise in enforcement actions against minorities may not be intentional but the result of a recent effort to boost tax revenues. Unfortunately, it is having the opposite effect. Instead of going after more of the big abusers, Evans claims that a the IRS’ reliance on highly automated systems is pushing the agency toward filing more claims against low-income filers, who may have slight, but obvious, mistakes on their returns. When the IRS does find the errors, usually a few years after they are made, the agency imposes penalty fees and interest, which many of the low-income filers don’t have the resources to pay.

The IRS doesn’t specify the ethnicity of the people it files actions against. To do his study Evans, who works with thousand of low-income filers a year, took a look at the zipcodes that had the largest number of IRS actions and found that they were often areas with large minority populations. The IRS declined to comment on the study to Fortune.com.

Evans told Fortune.com, “The IRS enforcement actions drive workers and revenue out of the system. Once people are caught in that mill, their life changes, and they’re forced to stay in the underclass.”

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  • http://stephenpoo.wordpress.com stephenpoo

    I’m sure management in the IRS wants results to be tallied. Have staff busy imposing penalties and agreements., show results.
    Who better to get concessions from then the working poor who have no law firm giving advice and game plays.
    To bad when imposing fines , penalties and interest that a persons abilitiy to pay and how it will affect their lives does not come into play.

  • deconstructiva

    I wonder if some form of redlining is going on. Does where one lives play a factor …thus targeted groups who live in “those areas”? Stephen, do dig more into this, please. Think of the cover story potential too (a little personal career greed doesn’t hurt) as well as exposing bad practices for the public good.

  • yourguidetochina

    This is so sad. The government going after the little guy who makes some mistake on their IRS form. It would be great to see the IRS prioritize their enforcement cases and have to start with the largest dollar value filings first and only when they are all complete can they start bothering the lower income people.

    Steve
    http://www.TheChinaBusinessGuide.com

  • waltwriston

    We’re banks ever Racist? They’re in it together through red-lining and unfair flat excise taxes they’re really putting downward pressure on the poor.

    If I recall right our own Sec of the Tres, couldn’t pay his taxes; he gets a wrist-slap and the poor for a few bucks at times are tracked down and harassed!

    It’s really not about color it’s class-warfare! It only makes the “news” like Time when its against the rich!

    To note, I’ve subscribed to TIme for almost 7 yrs, and this is my last “Time.”

    I do like this though, it should have more of The Curious Capitalist in it IMO.

  • jjrowe

    Shouldn’t this article be titled “IRS targets obvious tax mistakes”? I see nothing in the actual article suggesting something racist. Sure people making the mistakes are generally poor, uneducated and unfortunately minorities have higher rates of both. Yeah, the IRS is racist.. please.. Get Al Sharpton on the phone, he’ll be all over this.

  • http://rbmatudan.wordpress.com rbmatudan

    Everybody is a racist, it just differs on how they show it…. They’re window dressing the real issue being incapable to hold a position. People in government likes talking about their selves, people should not expect lot from the government since they always find a way to disappoint American people.

    http://www.pathtoasia.com/jobs/

  • http://alkesh2907.wordpress.com alkesh2907

    Please (please) stop such kind of journalism for god’s sake. It is very sad that in every country, every citizen face such problems, but I am failed to understand why media only pick minorities? Believe me such reporting always aggravate majority-minority conflict across the world. Pls. allow me to include my essay on the subject. Here it is…
    A Secular Rethink is certainly needed because of the “minoritism“ among certain quarters of the society as well as media. To understand the secularism in the Indian context it is very much necessary to have a global overview. There is a particular kind of global phenomenon about “Minority“. Political class, human rights organizations and the English media of all most all the country of the world have a certain bias towards minority. In western part of the world these three brands of society will always try to speak or write about immigrants who are basically in minority compare to the original nationals. In Muslim countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh politicians and English media as well as the so called human rights champions will always try to speak or write on behalf of the minority (Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, etc.). And the situation is not different in India as-well. Here also the politicians, English media and the so called rights champions always talk about “minority“. The meaning of the word “secularism“ have changed drastically only because of these three class of the world. It is not that that the minorities in all countries do not suffer, they are not deprived of their genuine rights, but the way in which it has been projected is wrong, totally wrong. Here I would like to draw attention towards a family of four – mother, father and two children. Out of two kids one is ten years old and the other is five. It is very common in each family that the kids will play together and will quarrel quite often. Now whenever there is a quarrel, the younger child will cry or shout loudly so the parents will intervene and the elder one will have to suffer their ire. This is the story of all ages in all standard families that kids quarrel and the elder kids have been made responsible without giving him a chance to explain even though out of ten times they quarrel nine times it is the younger one is responsible. Now this story should be look in to a vast context of society where people of different sections live. On the religion or other bases they are distinguished as majority or minority. Whenever there are disturbances it is the history which can be verify by anybody who wants that only majority community was being made responsible. Media targets only majority without verifying facts, rights champions jumps to condemn majority. For any reasons the ruling class loves to divide the people, either on religious or cast basis. It is a proven fact that over 95% people in every religion, cast and other sections of society are peace loving and they all depended upon each other. The rest 5% is notorious in each section of society and they are the soft targets of ruling class as well as fanatic religious leaders. They are like guided missiles. But my point is that they are still less responsible in terms of secularism in comparison with the media in general and English newspapers and TV channels in particular. The very medium which can be a bridge or a tool in the critical circumstances is the biggest divider of the society in terms of secularism. Though they are helpful during natural calamities like quakes, floods etc. their role during the communal clashes is one-sided, bias, and full of half-truths. The attitude of media is very dangerous during communal clashes in general and in terms of Hindu-Muslim (majority-minority in any country) relations in particular. Nobody knows but majority bashing is very common among English journalism all over the world (Hindus in case of India). This kind of journalism wins awards but let me say categorically that it never serve the purpose of secularism. There are scores of examples to prove the point that English media –TV channels, politicians and the so-called human rights champions have done more damage to the Indian secular fabric than the communal clashes it self. On August 13, 2006 two days before the 59thIndependence Day the Times of India published a “special report“ with three headings (page 9) and under the heading “The Bad“ they have publish a picture of the kar-sevaks on the top of the disputed structure in Ayodhya. Was it necessary to publish this kind of explosive photographs even after 14 years? If the answer is `yes` then why not the photo of the burning of the train in which 58 Hindus were burnt alive by fanatic Muslims at the Godhra railway station on February 27,2002? Tavleen Singh has rightly pointed out that the victims of the 1993bombings in Mumbai are still waiting for justice (Indian Express August 13, 2006, page 7). But the other side is that the so-called human rights champions and politicians are not giving any statements or organizing demonstrations and rallies to ask for the punishment of the terrorists of the Mumbai bombings or preparators of the Godhra carnage. On every December six these media publish and airs the reports of the year 1992 events, thus they remind the Muslims that their ages old disputed structure was demolished by Hindus, but the same media very cleverly forgets the terrorist acts of Mumbai bombings, Ghatkoper bombings, Godhra tragedy, Akshrdham attack.?
    It is very painful to note that whenever the Muslim fanatics attack, these media project it as a revenge (or reaction) of the so-called“ injustice“ or the Babri episode and so on. It is in this context that after the Godhra carnage whenever the Muslims attack, media project it as the revenge of the “Gujarat riots“, but as I said earlier they (media) do not say that the Gujarat riots were the reaction of the Godhra carnage. Even the Gujarat riots were and are projected in such a way that Godhra tragedy did not took place at all! and that in the riots only Muslims had suffered. Are these media reports or talks such vigorously about Jammu & Kashmir where thousands of people lost their lives every year as they talk about the alleged Gujarat riots? There are other examples of media bias in this regard. In first week of July 2006 the Rath Yatra was celebrated in India including Ahmedabad. RathYatra is one of the biggest events in Ahmedabad and it should be cover by all media without any prejudice or bias, but the Indian Express was the only newspaper which did not bother to even report the event the next day, forget about the photograph, but these newspapers never-ever forgets to print a sizable photo on ID essentially on the front page. In a way this is not secularism of the English media and TV channels but it should be branded as communalism of media. I think the role of the media should be balanced to build-up healthy society. They should not pamper one religion or one section and go on beating the other religion or section of the society. But unfortunately the fact is other-way-round. Media has never tried to go in to deep to investigate the psyche of the fanaticism in minority, never talk about religious conversions in remote Gujarat as well in other states of India, willfully undermines demands of the common civil code! They have never tried to find out the demographic changes in the old city areas of the Country, which is one of the major causes of clashes between the communities. Ahmedabad case should be studied in this regard. And let me point out that those who call themselves secular or human rights champions – never prefer to live in such areas, never they willing to marry their girls to a person of minority community or for that matter to appear on belongs to the so-called lower class. And politicians? let’s not talk about them. Thus the “minoritism“ is not going to solve the problem. Politicians, English media and rights champions will have to rethink in this regard. Just as they will have to contain themselves to give “voice“ about the immigrant minority in Western and other develop countries, their counterparts in the Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as other Muslim countries will have to limit themselves on going over-board in favor of the Hindu-Christian-Sikh minority, and the Indian minority lovers will also have to change their specs to get a better look. If we really wants to save the secular fabric of the society, the “communalism“ of media will have to stop once and for all. Pampering of minority should stop everywhere in the world. ****

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