The IRS Is Using AI to Target the Ultra-Wealthy for Tax Violations

3 years ago by L4sBot to c/technology

The IRS Is Using AI to Target the Ultra-Wealthy for Tax Violations::The agency is adding AI tools to identify taxpayers who make $1 million and up, and have more than $250,000 in tax evasion.

turkalino 67 points 3 years ago

They’ve been doing this for decades… AI, machine learning, statistics… the media thinks these words are perfectly interchangeable but AI gets the most clicks

path: 0 3310336, hotness: undefined, score: 67, children: 1

taanegl 5 points 3 years ago

path: 0 3310336 3315189, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0

altima_neo 56 points 3 years ago

They say "ai" but do they just mean software?

path: 0 3313643, hotness: undefined, score: 56, children: 3

Poob 39 points 3 years ago

All software is now AI. The sensor that tells your fridge to turn off when it's cold enough? Well that makes a decision of some kind, so AI. The cook timer on your microwave? AI. Your thermostat? Definitely AI.

path: 0 3313643 3318240, hotness: undefined, score: 39, children: 1

fsmacolyte 10 points 3 years ago

Old-school AI systems from way back in the day called Expert Systems were just a crapload of IF statements. There's never been a concrete agreed-upon definition of AI because there's never been an agreed-upon definition of the word Intelligence.

path: 0 3313643 3318240 3320697, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 0

SkyeStarfall 31 points 3 years ago

Probably machine learning models, as usual. Which may or may not be classified as AI.

Either way, useful in statistical problems like this.

Edit: reading the press release, yep, machine learning.

path: 0 3313643 3314113, hotness: undefined, score: 31, children: 0

jecxjo 22 points 3 years ago

I'll believe it when i see it. The amount of lost funds from multi millionaires and billionaires would easily pay for the staff required and yet they don't do it. It has always felt like an intentional act ignoring the wealthy to keep money in the US. Cheat on taxes as long as you keep your business woth us.

path: 0 3312724, hotness: undefined, score: 22, children: 3

bogdugg 23 points 3 years ago

Worth noting Biden recently put something like $60-$80 billion into improving the IRS.

path: 0 3312724 3313118, hotness: undefined, score: 23, children: 1

Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow 1 point 3 years ago

Counterpoint: one time he fell over and sometimes he speak bad

path: 0 3312724 3313118 3358185, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

RememberTheApollo_ 2 points 3 years ago

Pay more to buy politicians, which are way less than what it costs to pay taxes.

path: 0 3312724 3320790, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

tabular 22 points 3 years ago

You don't need AI to find the ultra-wealthy. You need AI to help target the majority.

path: 0 3319573, hotness: undefined, score: 22, children: 0

dingleberry 20 points 3 years ago

Macine Learning models trained on capitalist propaganda: "the rich have earned their place and privilege, you should tax the Starbucks workers instead".

path: 0 3318114, hotness: undefined, score: 20, children: 0

first_must_burn 12 points 3 years ago

This feels like "the ultra wealthy have already squeezed all the money they can out of the poor and lower middle class, so now they are starting to cannibalize the merely wealthy."

I know the wealthy don't see this directly, but if it keeps the machinery of government running so they can continue to benefit and they can mine it out through subsidies and backroom graft.

I am not saying that these millionaires shouldn't get targeted for not paying their taxes, but the IRS should start at the top and work their way down.

path: 0 3309212, hotness: undefined, score: 12, children: 1

hedgehog 31 points 3 years ago

Did you read the article?

The agency clarified that AI will be used to initiate investigations into 75 of the largest U.S. partnerships that document assets that exceed $10 billion on average.

It will reportedly be used to target hedge funds, real estate investment partnerships, and law firms who may have skirted the rules, amounting to roughly 1,600 taxpayers in total who “owe hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.”

path: 0 3309212 3310764, hotness: undefined, score: 31, children: 0

over_clox 9 points 3 years ago

Funny that they have to resort to artificial intelligence to accomplish what they should have been doing all along.

It makes a person wonder if the IRS has any real life intelligence... 🤔

path: 0 3307648, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 9

Shazbot 86 points 3 years ago

They do have intelligence, but that intelligence is deliberately underfunded to prevent this very situation. It's impossible to navigate the mountains of paperwork and legal loopholes the ultra-wealthy use with so few hands. That's why poorer filers get audited more often: less leg work, easier wins, at the expense of real revenue and justice against tax evaders.

path: 0 3307648 3307900, hotness: undefined, score: 86, children: 0

TheRaven 48 points 3 years ago

The issue isn’t intelligence. The issue is that they’re terribly understaffed. So they’ll use their staff to go after a larger group of small offenders instead of going after the few at the top who have big lawyers. Using AI, hopefully they can target the people who can truly afford to pay their taxes. Or we can also budget more towards funding the IRS properly and getting way more taxes paid overall as a result.

path: 0 3307648 3307874, hotness: undefined, score: 48, children: 1

TurtleJoe 18 points 3 years ago

Rs will not allow any more funding for the IRS. You saw how they freaked out when there was finding to hire new IRS agents as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, even though it was to replace existing agents as they retire, not expand the workforce.

path: 0 3307648 3307874 3308219, hotness: undefined, score: 18, children: 0

expected_crayon 18 points 3 years ago

Decades of budget cuts by Congress have made it so they just don’t have the staff necessary to untangle the web of financial transactions that the ultra-wealthy use to hide their tax evasion. Using AI allows them to do so despite the perpetual budget cuts.

path: 0 3307648 3307926, hotness: undefined, score: 18, children: 0

jjjalljs 9 points 3 years ago

There was an article a while ago about how the IRS isn't funded or staffed enough. Money spent on it is a net profit for the government, but many people (mostly conservatives) don't care about that. 2018 so partly out of date: https://www.propublica.org/...

path: 0 3307648 3308425, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 4

over_clox -7 points 3 years ago

How ironic, an organization designed to collect money let's rich people slide, and they can't afford enough qualified employees. Wonder what's wrong with that picture... 🤔

If they hadn't been letting the rich slide, they wouldn't be in that dilemma to begin with.

path: 0 3307648 3308425 3308793, hotness: undefined, score: -7, children: 3

Jerkface 15 points 3 years ago

They are not a for-profit organization. They get however much Congress gives them and that's it.

path: 0 3307648 3308425 3308793 3309086, hotness: undefined, score: 15, children: 1

over_clox -5 points 3 years ago

IRS collects taxes, taxes go to the government, to be distributed out for all the various governing organizations and government projects and such.

A portion of that goes right back to the IRS to pay the employees, otherwise I'm pretty sure nobody would even go to work for the IRS. Non-profit doesn't mean they work for free ya know.

Now you'd figure that if congress wanted to rake in more tax money, they'd ya know, like actually want to fund the IRS a bit more and want to tax the rich.

path: 0 3307648 3308425 3308793 3309086 3309346, hotness: undefined, score: -5, children: 0

echo64 7 points 3 years ago

Please with the terrible takes. People with lots of money lobby governments to underfunded the irs so they can have more money.

path: 0 3307648 3308425 3308793 3309199, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0

thecrotch 2 points 3 years ago

They're not going to spend a dime of it helping anyone. It's going to go to bombs and drones and domestic surveillance, just like the money they already collect

path: 0 3358601, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0

K1nsey6 -1 points 3 years ago

They are gonna go after the ones that dont have tax lawyers on retainer.

path: 0 3314840, hotness: undefined, score: -1, children: 0

MrBusinessMan -5 points 3 years ago

This is exactly the type of techno-authoritarianism Orwell warned us about.

path: 0 3319976, hotness: undefined, score: -5, children: 1

abbotsbury 5 points 3 years ago

That's true, I remember the part of 1984 where Winston was taken to Room 101 and forced to pay his taxes.

path: 0 3319976 3320844, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0

yoz -8 points 3 years ago

IRS works for the wealthy. Misleading title!

path: 0 3312807, hotness: undefined, score: -8, children: 1

authed -7 points 3 years ago

The IRS is a criminal organization like most government branches

path: 0 3312807 3313186, hotness: undefined, score: -7, children: 0

baked_tea -13 points 3 years ago

1 million plus is not ultra wealthy lmao. Yes I see the second condition

path: 0 3309077, hotness: undefined, score: -13, children: 3

echo64 17 points 3 years ago

Whatever world you live in where a million dollars income in one tax year is not considered ultra wealthy is dumb

path: 0 3309077 3309169, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 1

solstice 1 point 3 years ago

It's a ton don't get me wrong but I've had clients who regularly make $50 million + annually on average. They spend a million bucks a year on household employees alone. Different world up there.

path: 0 3309077 3309169 3320729, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

Cheems 7 points 3 years ago

$650,000 a year puts a household into the 1%

path: 0 3309077 3312530, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0

technology

@lemmy.world

login for more options

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

go to feed...

technology

@lemmy.world

login for more options

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

go to feed...