U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr., Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, today commented on a new report from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) finding continued growth of the already massive net tax gap. The report found that the net tax gap between Tax Year (TY) 2014-2016 was $428 billion, an increase of $48 billion from the previous TY 2011-2013 report.

“The estimated net tax gap growing from $380 Billion to $428 Billion is powerful evidence of why the IRS must be properly funded to finally begin cracking down on wealthy tax scofflaws. And these estimates are from many years ago; the projection for 2017-2019 in the report is $470 Billion and we can surmise the numbers are even worse today. For years, Republicans sabotaged the IRS. They have delayed refunds for millions of taxpayers and allowed too many powerful actors to pay a mere fraction of what they truly owe. The passage of $80 billion in IRS funding over the next decade by congressional Democrats will allow the agency to answer the phones and collect what is owed by the wealthiest tax cheats to our great country. Our investment pays for itself while making tax time easier for all working Americans. Every single Republican in Congress voted against responsibly funding the IRS, again demonstrating that allowing more big business tax cheating remains one of their top priorities. With enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, we can finally begin to close this deeply damaging gap.”