The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is “laser-focused” on ensuring tax laws are enforced in a fair and impartial manner after reports emerged that the federal agency inadvertently audits black taxpayers at significantly higher rates than other Americans.
In a May 15 letter (pdf) to Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel noted a recent joint study by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and the Treasury Department which found that black taxpayers are audited at three to five times the rate of non-black taxpayers.
“When evidence of unfair treatment is presented, we must take immediate actions to address it,” Werfel wrote in his letter to Wyden. “It is also important to reiterate that we do not and will not consider race as part of our case selection and audit processes.”…