Rich tax dodgers cost us all

When politicians focus on crime, they usually mean crime in the streets, not crime in the suites.

There are no “pro-crime” lobbyists, so campaign rhetoric tries to instill fear, regardless of actual danger.

Candidates say they support “law and order.”

But it’s really for SOME.

This isn’t just about how prominent or affluent Americans can escape consequences for ethical, even illegal actions, although that happens, nor about how some employers defy the law with few consequences if their victims are workers, although that occurs. A blatant example of laws not applying to some is how the country loses billions of dollars because of rich scofflaws.

Using tax laws creatively to minimize tax liability is one thing; cheating is different. Tax cheats could cost the United States $7 trillion in the next decade, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The 1% doesn’t report some 21% of their income taxes, a 2021 study by IRS and university experts found. About 36% of all unpaid federal taxes came from that 1%.

“Imagine what we could do for people with $7 trillion,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). “That's infrastructure, child care, paid leave, free college, climate action, and other investments in our communities.”

In recent months, House Republicans renewed their attacks from last year, when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides almost $80 billion over 10 years to restore some of the staff lost when the IRS budget was greatly reduced in the last 15 years – a work force downsized over time instead of a huge attention-getting layoff, resulting in too few people to do the work – to process routine returns or even to answer the phones or questions.

Former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen commented, “I don’t know any organization in my 20 years of experience in the private sector that has said, ‘I think I’ll take my revenue operation and starve it for funds’.”

Once falsely claiming the IRS will hire “87,000 new agents to weaponize the IRS against small business owners and middle America,” GOP lawmakers in debt-ceiling negotiations seek to cut that funding, following an earlier effort to rescind it, and even introducing a bill abolishing the IRS and replacing income tax with a national sales tax.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study Tax Evasion at The Top of The Income Distribution: Theory and Evidence, said, “Our results highlight that there is substantial evasion at the top which requires administrative resources to detect and deter. Collecting all unpaid federal income tax from this group would increase federal revenues by about $175 billion annually.”

In some ways, it’s old news. Critics said the IRS targeted tax-exempt conservative groups, but independent probes found that progressive organizations also were audited. And “Abolish the IRS” was a slogan when U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ran for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination.

But now, because House Republicans want to keep cutting the IRS (while voicing concerns about deficits at least partly due to inadequate revenue!), it’s vital everyday Americans remain alert to mind-boggling mischief in the past and threats ahead.

In 2008 the IRS recognized hundreds of foreign companies operating in the United States weren’t paying their required U.S. taxes and started pursuing them. Then Congress’ budget-cutting started contributing to loss of staff and resources. Ten years ago $600 million was cut in one budget deal after previous years’ cuts, and months later, Congress slashed an additional $350 million from the agency. Investigations and audits of non-filers dropped dramatically, as did offshore accounts where people can hide income.

“Corporations and the wealthy are the biggest beneficiaries of the IRS’ decay [because] it takes specialized, well-trained personnel to audit a business or a billionaire or to unravel a tax scheme — and those employees are leaving in droves and taking their expertise with them,” reported ProPublica’s Paul Kiel and Jess Eisinger.

However, low-income taxpayers are still audited, especially recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), one of the nation’s biggest anti-poverty programs. EITC households are audited at a higher rate than expected between 380,000 to 600,000 EITC audits yearly, reported ProPublica, which added that Republicans on Capitol Hill pressure the IRS to prioritize EITC homes for compliance.

“While the wealthy now have an open invitation to cheat, low-income taxpayers are receiving heightened scrutiny because they can be audited far more easily. All it takes is a letter instead of a team of investigators and lawyers,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) from the Senate Finance Committee.

“We have two tax systems in this country,” he continued, “and nothing illustrates that better than the IRS ignoring wealthy tax cheats while penalizing low-income workers over small mistakes.”

Billionaires who can make hefty campaign contributions might whine to their Washington lap dogs about paying another $1 million in taxes, but that’s 1/1,000 of their worth – like a middle-class family making $100,000 complaining about an extra 100 bucks.

“We know our tax system is broken, and it’s long past time we start fixing it,” said Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). “The ultra-wealthy play by different rules than the rest of us.”

Law enforcement should ensure tax obligations are met fairly.

From a dream to destiny: Woman returning to roots to help battered women

For 39-year-old Veronicah Richards, an ambitious dream moved closer to reality when a head of state heard the idea and endorsed it.

 

The idea is the Imani Rescue Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization set up to be a shelter for women and children enduring domestic violence in Kenya, East Africa. (Imani is a Swahili word meaning Faith.) 

 

As to the mission: Domestic violence against women is a serious issue in Kenya. Women are about half of Kenya’s population of 53 million. Veronicah says that more than 40% of Kenyan women have experienced domestic violence with many cases going unreported.

 

“Kenya is a wonderful country with wonderful people, but unfortunately has no programs to help those who are destitute,” she’s said, adding, “Due to a lack of resources and government programs to protect this vulnerable population, many women and children are stuck living in abuse.”

 

The Center will provide refuge to women living in abusive situation, education and skills training so the women can begin to earn an income to support themselves and become independent, and assistance for their children and area orphans.

 

“We have been dreaming of building a rescue center in southern Kenya for over a decade,” Veronich has said, adding, “Our mission is to give hope to women and children of Kenya, to help them survive and thrive through food, shelter and rehabilitation from abuse,” she adds. “Our vision is to change one life at a time by giving a hand up not a handout."

 

The project has already raised three-fourths of their $160,000 startup goal.

 

“We have received a lot of support from private individuals, our home church [RockChurch in East Peoria], foundations and more. One of the fundraising [efforts] has been bagging for tips at both Hy-Vee grocery stores,” she says. Last summer, “we had over 50 volunteers bagging groceries, raising over $15,000.

“We also need ongoing support.”

 

The dream became more real in December.

 

“We were in Washington, D.C., to renew my Kenyan passport and found out at the last minute that the Kenyan President William Ruto was speaking to Kenyans living in the U.S. -- about a mile away. The guy who was processing our application asked, ‘Are you going?’ I was like, ‘Can we?’ He said, ‘Of course, the President is here to speak to us.’

 

“We arrived about a half hour or so before the president [was] to give his speech,” Veronicah says. “Towards the end of his speech, the President [said he’d] take questions. I raised my hand and boom! He chose me. When I got the mic, I cried because in that room were many people who could truly make a difference to the lives of women and children struggling, and here I was with an amazing opportunity.

 

“I told myself, ‘Get it together, Veronicah! Here is your chance.’ I took a big breath and said, ‘Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity. I am here to speak up for women, especially women going through domestic violence. They have no way to even call for help. No emergency number; nothing. Please consider us. The whole room erupted with people cheering and clapping, some crying. The President promised me change and connected me to one of his cabinet secretaries, his adviser on women’s rights. We have been in communication and in March we had a meeting in New York City. We now have full support from the office of the President of Kenya and his government.”

 

Local support has been indispensable, too, she says.

 

“Carol Marna, Chief Executive Officer at the Center for Prevention of Abuse, has offered so much help to us, including free training to help us prepare on this journey,” Veronicah says. “We are forever grateful for our wonderful community. Peoria has been a blessing to us.

 

“Greg Batton from [WMBD’s] ‘Greg and Dan Show’ is our number-one cheerleader,” she continues. “He dedicated his first [live] show ‘My Life in Boxes’ and donated all ticket proceeds to Imani Rescue Center. He’s family to us.”

 

Veronicah is a naturalized American, with dual Kenyan/U.S. citizenships. A mortgage loan originator by profession, she resigned her position after an eight-year career to focus on the mission she shares with her husband Terry. Born and raised in a small village in Kenya, she moved to America in 2008 after she married Terry, a 43-year-old Central Illinois native who’s worked as a utility line clearance foreman and played as a bassist and vocalist in the ’80s progressive/metal band War Hammer. 

 

The couple met in Kenya in 2005 when Terry was there on a mission trip, Veronicah says.

 

“It was love at first sight,” she says. “Our story is one of those stories that could be in a movie. Our main communication from 2005 to 2006 was through letters. It would take two weeks for me to receive a letter from Terry, and it would take him two weeks to receive a response, [so] we had one communication a month. We got to learn about one another this way for a year.”

 

Veronicah learned about battered women as a child.

 

“When I was about 10 years old, I remember hearing screams in the neighborhood,” she recalls. “It was a regular thing. Without a working emergency number, the only way one would call for help was to scream, with hopes that a good neighbor would hear you and come to your rescue. This time, we heard the scream and my family, and I ran towards the scream. When we got there, we found the neighbor lady beaten badly by her husband.

 

“She was on the ground with the husband holding a giant brick about to drop it on her, yelling, ‘Today I am going to finish you off!’ Her ‘crime’ was questioning the husband for coming home drunk, spending all the money on alcohol, while the kids had nothing for food,” Veronicah continues. “By the Grace of God, we rescued her. The following day, she was apologizing, defending the husband: ‘He was just drunk.’ She stayed.

 

“I thought to myself, ‘There must be a better way. No one deserves this’,” she adds. “If we did not show up, she could have been killed. I knew I wanted to help, but I did not know how. Now I have a way to help. I will wake up knowing that I will make a difference in a community in desperate need.”

 

They bought a five-acre piece of property in 2018, and now activities are accelerating.

 

“We just received the shipping container that we have been looking for,” Veronicah says. “Now it’s time to start packing. Our goal is to be there this summer to get the project started.”

 

Imani Rescue Center will be the first women’s shelter in Kimana, population 10,000.

 

Initially, the project will install a groundwater well for free fresh water, a solar-power system since power is unreliable in that area, and an irrigation system to begin growing food for people they help.

 

Also, building the rescue center will require permits, architectural design and engineering, a sewage and septic system, plumbing, etc., plus purchasing beds and furnishings, first-aid kits, and sanitary supplies.

“We are all the voices of those hurting and hungry while they can’t always speak for themselves,” Veronicah has said, adding, “We all need help every now and then/ This is a universal concept no matter where we come from or how far. We all have an opportunity to change someone’s life.”

 

You can watch the video of President Ruto’s speech and Veronicah’s question on the Imani Rescue Center Facebook page; for more information, go to www.imanirescue.org.