By Casey Harper (The Center Square)
President Joe Biden is taking criticism after the IRS said it would follow service industry suggestions in a new effort to boost collections.
The IRS this week issued new guidance for service industry employers for a “voluntary tip reporting program.”
The plan “monitors employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and charges tip data from the employer’s point-of-sale system, and makes allowances for adjustments in tipping practices from year to year.”
The IRS encourages employers to allow this monitoring, saying that “the employer receives protection from liability” and it reduces the likelihood of receiving a “compliance review” from the IRS.
“Participating employers demonstrate compliance with the program’s requirements by submitting an annual report after the close of the calendar year, reducing the need for compliance reviews by the IRS,” the IRS said.
Republicans blasted Biden over the new plan.
“Stop the presses. There is no need to raise the debt limit,” said Rep. Thomas Massey, R-Ky. “Biden is following the advice of those billionaire waitresses,” he said, referring to Biden’s call for a billionaire tax.
Support conservative voices!
Sign up to receive the latest Political news, insight and commentary delivered straight to your inbox.
RELATED: Biden Claims Public Has No Interest in Son’s Hunter Investigation, Public Says Otherwise
Biden emphasized the effort in his State of the Union address the same week that no one making less than $400,000 would pay more in taxes.
In the speech, Biden called for “the rich and big corporations to start paying their fair share” and proposed quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks from 1% to 4%, a proposal critics say could cost countless jobs.
“Look, I’m a capitalist, but pay your fair share,” Biden said. “In 2020, America’s 55 largest corporations, the Fortune 500, made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal taxes … That’s not fair, folks.”
In his speech, Biden proposed a 15% minimum tax on book income passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.
A more aggressive IRS is not new. Biden has made it clear since taking office that this is a key part of his agenda. The president pushed for more IRS enforcement to fund some of his spending as an alternative to raising taxes. The main thrust of that plan came from the previous Democrat-led Congress hiring 87,000 new IRS agents to audit Americans and raise revenue.
“Joe Biden’s radical war on the working class has only extended to workers on the edge, further evidence that working-class Americans earning less than $75,000 will bear the brunt of 710,000 new IRS audits under the newly supercharged IRS,” said the Ways and Means committee chairman. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo. “While the president talks a big game about going after billionaires in his partisan State of the Union address, it’s clear the White House is doubling down on the madness and prioritizing going after hardworking middle-class employees.”
Related: Americans’ Personal Finances Worse Since the Great Recession
House Republicans voted earlier this year to defund Biden’s additional IRS agents, but that bill will not become law on Biden’s watch.
“When Biden says the IRS is going after millionaires and billionaires, apparently he means a waitress living off tips,” said Rep. R-Colo. Lauren Bobert said.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
