Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged on Friday that 90 percent of IRS audits will be conducted on small businesses and families, not billionaires.
Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE) questioned Yellen on the ambiguity of her opening statement. Smith prefaced his question by noting the 87,000 new IRS agents hired at the agency over the next decade to conduct tax enforcement on Americans.
“Regarding the audits, there has been confusion about the meaning of the directive that you cited,” Smith said in his line of questioning. “Are you talking about the total number of audits or the proportion of audits on families and small businesses under 400,000 dollars?”
“I’m talking about the proportion of those small businesses and families,” Yellen admitted.
Smith responded, “So the proportion is 90 percent. Ninety percent of the new audits will be, according to the data — that we can expect up to 90 percent of new audits on those making less than $400,000.”