The Nation : Uncollected Taxes Soar

The amount of uncollected federal taxes soared to $45 billion last year--a 31% increase--and the budget proposed for the Internal Revenue Service offers little hope of correcting the problem, government auditors said. The General Accounting Office cautioned Congress that requiring the IRS to share in mandatory budget cuts with most other government agencies could make matters worse. “IRS stands virtually alone on the ‘revenue side’ of the government,” GAO spokesman Johnny C. Finch told a House oversight subcommittee. Contributing to the soaring total of unpaid accounts, the IRS said, are a 46% increase in the amounts owed on tax returns and a backlog of several billion dollars’ worth of unposted payments and account adjustments resulting from massive computer problems last year.