Tax prosecutions plunge as Trump shifts crime-fighting efforts
Federal tax prosecutions fell to their lowest level in decades this year, declining more than 27% from the year before as the Trump administration cut the ranks of attorneys and agents who pursue those cases, a Reuters examination has found.
President Donald Trump's administration has carried out a sweeping overhaul of U.S. law enforcement this year, forcing out scores of attorneys and focusing large sections of the Justice Department on tracking down immigrants. Its retreat from tax enforcement illustrates the toll that shift has taken on other crime-fighting efforts.
The administration made deep cuts to the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigative unit, and some of those who remained were ordered to start working on immigration cases or anti-crime patrols in Washington, according to government records and officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss their work publicly. At the same time, the Justice Department closed its Tax Division, and officials said a third or more of the criminal lawyers who worked there quit.
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The government estimates that it collects almost $700 billion less in taxes than it is owed each year. Criminal prosecutions seek to recoup only a small fraction of that amount, but the threat of prison or large fines is meant to be one of the government's key tools for deterring cheating. Experts including former IRS and Justice Department officials worry blunting the tool could embolden more cheating.
"Decreasing criminal enforcement across all types of taxpayers would signal an indifference to cheating and insults the millions of honest filers who pay the taxes they owe," said David Hubbert, a senior fellow at the Tax Law Center at New York University's law school, and a former top official in the Tax Division.
Reuters used federal court dockets to count the number of Justice Department attorneys who appeared on behalf of the government in tax prosecutions between January and the beginning of November. Last year, about 420 did. This year, about 160 have.
Top Trump administration officials told prosecutors early this year that tax investigations were not a priority, three people familiar with the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the department's internal deliberations. Participants concluded that the department's new management was "very skeptical about white-collar crime and whether we should be doing those cases," one person familiar with the discussions recalled.
