$1.3B in unpaid taxes recovered from high-income Americans

The Treasury Department announced Friday that it had recovered $1.3 billion of unpaid taxes from high-income Americans.

The recovered money comes as part of the effort to ensure wealthy individuals pay the taxes they owe under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, according to the department’s release.

Starting in February 2024, the IRS launched its plan of pursuing 125,000 “high-income, high-wealth taxpayers” who had not filed taxes since 2017.

Those individuals were targeted after the IRS found third-party materials, like a W2 or 1099 form, that indicates these people received income but did not file their tax returns.

The Treasury Department credited the Inflation Reduction Act for giving the IRS more funding to do this work. Those funds have been a big political issue, with Republicans clawing back some of the funds and arguing middle-class taxpayers could be targeted. The Biden administration has said the funds are being used to go after wealthy taxpayers.

“Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS non-filer program ran sporadically since 2016 due to severe budget and staff limitations that did not allow these cases to be pursued,” the Treasury Department said.

The department said within the first six months of the program, nearly 21,000 of those wealthy taxpayers have filed, leading to $172 million in taxes being paid so far.

The effort began in fall 2023, but the IRS expanded its effort after successfully collecting $160 million last year.

“Nearly 80% of these 1,600 millionaires with delinquent tax debt have no made a payment, leading to over $1.1 billion recovered,” the department said. “This is an additional $100 million just since July, when Treasury and IRS announced reaching the $1 billion milestone.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will deliver remarks Friday with IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in Austin, Texas.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.