On Friday, January 6, the Internal Revenue Service issued a press release claiming what the "tax gap" (or federal taxes which are not paid on time) was for tax year 2006. The IRS estimates that $385 billion was not collected in 2006 ($376 billion was from "underreporting"). Before anyone in Congress thinks that they can or would be able to close the tax gap, they should be reminded the tried and they failed as part of ObamaCare.

What?  Yes. That is where the failed 1099 revenue provision of ObamaCare came from (it was supposed to close the tax gap and raise $17.1 billion to "pay for" ObamaCare). Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) regularly talks about closing the tax gap as if it is as easy as buying a coke from a vending machine. The problem is that collecting even a fraction of the tax gap imposes a huge compliance burden every business and many individual taxpayers. That is why Congress sought to repeal ObamaCare's 1099 provision before it even went into effect.  So as you read articles about the tax gap and people "not paying their fare share" just remember that closing the tax gap is not as easy as the politicians say it is (they should know better, they tried, they failed to close it in 2010).

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