US says recovered $1.3bn from wealthy taxpayers

The US government said Friday that it has recovered $1.3 billion from wealthy taxpayers since late 2023, as part of efforts to ensure that high-income individuals are paying taxes owed.

Between 2010 and 2018, the audit rate for millionaires fell by 80 percent, according to excerpts from a speech that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is due to deliver in Texas.

“And during the previous administration, as audit rates on high-income taxpayers fell, the share of audits on taxpayers with incomes under $200,000 increased,” Yellen added in prepared remarks, referring to former president Donald Trump’s administration.

Tax policy has come into focus as November’s presidential election draws close.

Both Democrat presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Trump have been seeking to woo taxpayers with proposals to ease their financial burdens.

Harris, who is also Vice President under the current US administration, has pushed for higher taxes on wealthy individuals as well.

These proposals come atop of current efforts to collect unpaid taxes.

“In 2019, the top one percent of Americans was estimated to owe over one-fifth of unpaid taxes, leaving ordinary Americans to shoulder the burden,” Yellen notes in her speech.

On Friday, the US Treasury said that since officials launched an initiative in late 2023 to pursue high-income individuals who failed to pay their recognized tax debt, nearly 80 percent of 1,600 millionaires have since made a payment.

This meant a recovery of over $1.1 billion.

Another effort launched in early 2024 to go after high-earners who had not filed taxes since 2017 has separately returned $172 million in taxes, the Treasury said.