The US Is Doing a Terrible Job Collecting Taxes: Karl Smith

The US budget deficit for fiscal 2023 ending Sept. 30 was an eye-watering $1.7 trillion. Any pragmatic politician knows that reducing such a massive shortfall will require some combination of higher taxes and spending cuts. But before we demand more from hardworking families and individuals, we need to ask a fundamental question: Is Uncle Sam doing his best to collect what’s due?

The latest Internal Revenue Service estimates are the that almost $700 billion in taxes went unpaid in 2021. This figure, called the tax gap, is the difference between what Americans owed and what the government collected. This ...