The Inflation Reduction Act should scare the hell out of you

nothing about inflation; everything about the largest police state expansion in US history

By way of the Inflation Reduction Act, Joe Biden is essentially doubling the amount of IRS workers, from 96,000 to 183,000. He wants you to believe he is not targeting you but rather the rich guys who have not paid their fair share. Joe proclaims that no one making under $400,000 would be targeted by the new audits, though there is no such limiting provision in the bill.

The entire Inflation Reduction Act was sold as a necessary measure to reduce rampant inflation, yet it does nothing to curb the factors that cause it. Milton Friedman notes that inflation is caused by one reason only: an increase in the overall supply of money in circulation. It is big government spending that dumps massive amounts of new money into the economy, causing a limited supply of goods to be bid up in price.

The inflation deception aside, let’s take a closer look at the true motive behind this new IRS expansion and how it will create worry, expense and misery for millions of hard-working citizens.

According to IRS, there are about 2.8 million Americans who earn $400,000 or more. Those taxpayers make up 1.8 percent of the population and pay about one third of all taxes collected, even though many have a stable of accountants and lawyers. Those numbers would indicate that the IRS has pretty much mined this bunch clean, given that politicians have written the tax code so ambiguously that those accountants and lawyers make additional audits too expensive and predictably unproductive.

So what would be a productive use for the massive influx of new agents? Number one, to mine taxes from the gig economy. The gig economy includes businesses that hire independent contractors to perform individual jobs, called “gigs.” Uber and Door Dash are among the best known. Another aspect of the gig economy involves so-called “digital earning platforms,” like eBay and Etsy, which allow people to earn money by selling their used items or personal creations, and online handyman services, like TaskRabbit.

According to a Gallup Workplace report, “Gallup estimates that 29% of all workers in the U.S. have an alternative work arrangement as their primary job. This includes a quarter of all full-time workers (24%) and half of all part-time workers (49%). Including multiple job holders, 36% have a gig work arrangement in some capacity.”

These budding entrepreneurs often get paid through mobile payment services like Venmo, Paypal or CashApp or get paid directly through the Uber or Doordash app. Beginning in 2022, banks and on-line payment networks, are required to report payments of $600 or more to IRS.

In the past, much of the actual income produced in the gig economy was far less knowable than it is today. Federal mandates now require massive reporting by a multitude of sources and who knows what level of domestic spying and data collection goes on beneath the radar. It seems far more reasonable to assess that the new 87,000 federal money grabbers have found a newly available crop to harvest.

Also, the state has largely been deprived from taking a cut of digital currency profits. Since 2020, Form 1040 began asking, “At any time during 2021, did you receive, sell or otherwise dispose of any financial interest in any virtual currency.” Even if the Feds cannot access the relevant information now, they are setting folks up in the event they attain that ability. By practically doubling its forces, the IRS has an army the Sheriff of Nottingham could only envy. And, they will be poised to pounce.

The comically-named Inflation Reduction Act does not address any aspect of inflation. What it DOES do is initiate the largest expansion of the domestic police state in American history, target those participating in the gig economy, pimp unwanted green energy schemes and toss a few cookies to Biden’s favored special interests.

If you believe that vaccines are not supposed to provide immunity, a woman can have a penis, multiple quarters of negative growth does not define recession and that everything that goes bump in the night is Santa Claus, then perhaps you can also believe the Biden IRS will leave the little guys alone.