Offer tax discounts to right IRS

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

I’m reading that because the Internal Revenue Service is understaffed and overworked (and well behind in getting tax refunds out because of the pandemic), one Washington scribe called it “critically malfunctioning” and a “hot mess.”

As Dr. Norman Vincent Peale used to famously say, “Every problem contains with it the seed of its own solution.”

I have a creative solution to help fund the IRS while simultaneously alleviating its workload and giving burdened taxpayers much-needed financial relief.

I propose that the U.S. government authorize a one-time, 50% lump-sum payment discount to any person, married couple or business with back taxes. For example, if a married couple owes $14,500 on their back taxes, if they can get together a lump sum of $7,250,that payment would go directly into the IRS operational budget while exonerating the indebted taxpayer(s) of their entire debt.

By doing this, the IRS could streamline its backlog of paperwork, hire more people to process future filings and provide struggling people and businesses a feasible way to wipe high-interest debt from their balance sheets. 

 

EUGENE R. DUNN

Medford, N.Y.