How the Rich Get Away With It

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Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

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While we wait around for election results, David Cay Johnston provides us with a tidbit about how the rich are faring under Donald Trump:

Let’s start with IRS audits of the 23,400 richest American households, average income $30 million each. In 2018 the Trump administration audited seven. You read that right—seven. That’s an audit rate of 0.03%.

….This is a dramatic shift from the recent past. Under Obama in 2015, America’s richest households were 270 times more likely to be audited than under Trump, my analysis of IRS Data Book tables data shows. That year 8.16% of these households had their tax returns audited, not 0.03%.

It’s good to be rich, isn’t it? But perhaps their free ride comes to an end today. Part of it, anyway.