The title of the article is a bit misleading. Most of this is not about the $600 million of taxpayers money that was used to fund this study, in fact it was more an indictment of the IRS and why they allow employees who cheat on their taxes to keep their jobs. Admittedly, there are some pretty interesting details about IRS workers and fraud, but the fact of the $600,000 the feds spent is barely mentioned, and no actual findings of the study are reported. There is an early quote that Shakespeare could have said, and so to further fill out the article, the author seems to feel the need to put in more information in about the 14th century playwright. Even suggesting that Shakespeare was a tax cheat, (he was apparently known as a shrewd business man.) The link between rumors of a William Shakespeare as a good business man, to the conclusion that he cheated on his taxes, seems a little dubious. In fact if he were alive today, he might decide to file a lawsuit against the author for slander. However interesting we think the subject of Elizabethian playwrights and their tax issues, it leaves you feeling a little confused about with why a lot of federal tax money went to fund this study, and what it found.
Key Points:
- 1The federal government spent $6K to determine why people cheat on their taxes.
- 2Random tax audits actually cause people to cheat more on future taxes.
- 3IRS employees are unlikely to be fired when caught willfully cheating on taxes even though a 1998 law requires the IRS to do so.
However, like lemon juice in a paper cut, we now find that some of our hard-earned money is funding studies about why people might cheat on their taxes.
Read the full article at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/04/18/feds-paid-600k-to-learn-why-people-cheat-irs-on-their-taxes-thats-why/
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