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You may have missed it during the buzz of the holiday season, but the IRS has released its latest update to the Strategic Operating Plan. The annual update reports that in 2024 the IRS recovered $4.7 billion through new initiatives in three areas:
$1.3 billion collected from wealthy individuals who either failed to pay their tax debts or submit tax returns
$2.9 billion recovered through IRS Criminal Investigation efforts targeting tax fraud, financial crimes, drug trafficking, cybercrime, and terrorist financing
$475 million obtained from civil and criminal cases that originated from whistleblower tips
The IRS has attempted to place a special focus on high-income non-filers since 2016, but the program has run only sporadically due to “severe budget and staff limitations.” This year, additional funding allowing the IRS to pursue more of these cases. As a result, the agency has collected an initial $292 million from more than 28,000 non-filers. The IRS identified these cases through third-party documentation (Forms W-2 and 1099s) showing the individuals earned between $400,000 and $1 million, or over $1 million, yet did not submit tax returns.
IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) has been particularly productive in 2024, identifying over $9.1 billion in fraud and securing court orders for $1.7 billion in restitution to U.S. taxpayers. Their asset seizure operations netted approximately $1.2 billion, proving that crime doesn’t pay, but it does generate recoverable assets.
In 2024, whistleblowers earned $123.5 million in awards for helping collect $474.7 million in proceeds. These cases covered everything from unreported income and hidden offshore assets to creative interpretations of deductible expenses—showing that sometimes the best auditor is a well-informed insider with a conscience (and perhaps an eye on that reward money).
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