On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) responded to people who are concerned about being audited due to increased funding for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation bill by stating that “if people are honest about their taxes, this won’t be an issue.”
Co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked, “When you think about the IRS…there’s a lot of commotion, a lot of talking points around the fact that 87,000 employees — 87,000 people will be working at the IRS and what that means for your chance of — not just your chance of getting audited, but the cost of getting audited for people who are either running small businesses or for individuals who can’t afford it. What do you tell them?”
Khanna answered, “I tell them, like everyone, pay your taxes. I mean, this is not designed for clever schemes, this is going after people who just aren’t honestly paying their taxes. And there is almost a trillion dollars of revenue because of that. That’s not me, that’s Larry Summers. He did this groundbreaking paper that a lot of…revenue we’re not collecting because people aren’t being honest about it. Most people, our teachers or firefighters, you have to on the W-2, you’re honest about your taxes, and if people are honest about their taxes, this won’t be an issue.”
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