DOGE may be an acronym for the Department of Government Efficiency, but it is far from efficient in its plans to cut up to 25% of the IRS staff which include significant cuts to the staff of the IRS Criminal Investigations unit.
The Criminal Investigation unit of the IRS plays an essential role in combating drug and human trafficking, terrorism, tax crimes, financial crimes and money laundering.
Through the Criminal Investigation Unit’s Asset and Investigative Service, it seizes assets used by criminal enterprises and then sends those forfeited funds to the Treasury Forfeiture Fund which returns funds to crime victims, reimburses law enforcement agencies for expenses incurred in conducting criminal investigations as well as share forfeited funds with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
According to its annual report, in 2024 the IRS-CI initiated more than 2,667 criminal investigations, obtaining 1,571 convictions representing a 90% conviction rate. It uncovered more than $9.1 billion in fraud from tax and financial crimes, obtained court orders totaling $1.7 billion in restitution to the IRS and seized criminal assets totaling approximately $1.2 billion far exceeding the cost of its budget.
In addition, in the Fall of 2024 the IRS-CI increased its efforts against wealthy tax cheats with actions against 1,600 taxpayers earning more than a million dollars a year which by July of 2024 had already brought in $1 billion in collections.
According to a study at the University of Michigan the top .5% of the highest earning Americans account for about a fifth of the income that is hidden from the IRS estimated to be more than $50 billion. Efforts by DOGE to reduce the CI’s efforts to collect taxes owed by the very wealthy appear to be extremely shortsighted.
IRS-CI has also played a major part in criminal actions against drug cartels, which are a major focus of the present administration which makes DOGE’s efforts to reduce their staff all the more confusing.
As noted in a letter from Senators Ron Wyden, Chuck Schumer and seven Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee:
“IRS Criminal Investigation is at the forefront of federal law enforcement efforts to investigate fentanyl trafficking by cartels, human trafficking, terrorism financing, and sanctions evasion. For example, CI was the lead investigative agency in the largest international fentanyl/opioid seizure in U.S. history. This operation took down a massive drug trafficking operation and seized 864 kg of drugs, including an astounding 64kg of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced opioids, enough to kill thousands of people. CI was also responsible for the dismantling of several large fentanyl trafficking networks operated by the Sinaloa cartel, including a collaboration with Chinese money laundering organizations. An indefinite hiring freeze at CI would endanger both public safety and national security by directly hampering multi-agency efforts to pursue and dismantle thee highly dangerous criminal networks.”
Cutting staff and funding from an efficient government agency that returns far more than it costs makes no sense and leaves the country more vulnerable to criminal enterprises and encourages tax cheating.
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