The U.S. government said Friday it has collected $1.3 billion from wealthy taxpayers since the end of 2023 as part of an effort to ensure wealthy individuals pay their taxes.
Between 2010 and 2018 Audit rates for millionaires down 80 percentaccording to excerpts from a speech Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to give in Texas.
“And during the previous administration, as the audit rate for high-income taxpayers fell, the share of audits for taxpayers making less than $200,000 increased,” Yellen added in prepared remarks, referring to the administration of former President Donald Trump.
Tax policy has come into focus as the November presidential election approaches.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Trump are trying to woo taxpayers with proposals to ease their financial burden.
Harris, who is also vice president in the current US administration, has also advocated raising taxes on the rich.
These proposals complement ongoing efforts to collect unpaid taxes.
“The top 1 percent of Americans are estimated to have owed more than one-fifth of their unpaid taxes in 2019, leaving ordinary Americans bearing the brunt of the burden,” Yellen said in her speech.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that since officials launched an initiative in late 2023 to go after high-income earners who failed to pay recognized tax debt, nearly 80 percent of 1,600 millionaires have already made payments.
This meant a return of more than $1.1 billion.
Another effort in early 2024 to hold high-income earners accountable for failing to file taxes since 2017 separately yielded $172 million in tax refunds, according to the Treasury Department.
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