The IRS is stepping up its efforts to tackle the growing problem of non-filing taxpayers. Recent studies have shown that the non-filing tax gap has almost doubled in five years, reaching $77bn in 2021. However, this figure does not include an estimate of corporate non-filing. The IRS has previously struggled with non-filer enforcement due to lack of resources, but a new initiative aims to change that. The agency plans to target approximately 125,000 individuals who received more than $400,000 in income between 2017 and 2021. This is just a small part of the overall non-filer population, which includes millions of individual and business non-filers. The IRS needs to take a comprehensive approach to address this issue and reduce the number of non-filing taxpayers. Stepped-up notifications and enforcement should be the standard operating procedure to ensure compliance and close the tax gap.
