Levin Questions Proposed IRS Focus on Low Income Workers

WASHINGTON – In conjunction with today's Joint Review of Internal Revenue Service activities, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who is serving on the panel as the Democratic member from the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, released the following letter [PDF] questioning an Internal Revenue Service proposal to subject low income, working Americans claiming the earned income tax credit (EITC) to burdensome paperwork requirements and to spend an additional $100 million on a new EITC enforcement effort, instead of concentrating on existing enforcement programs aimed at some corporations and high income individuals' use of abusive tax shelters to avoid payment of taxes totaling an estimated $40 - $70 billion each year.