IRS chief : The U.S. annual ‘tax gap’ may exceed $1 trillion

The Internal Revenue Service of the United States requires more consistent funding to help close a “tax gap” of around $1 trillion.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said in a statement on Tuesday that with new sources of wealth having arisen since 2011-2013, when the last official annual tax gap of $441 billion, such as cryptocurrencies and the rising use of complex foreign-source income, is leaving perhaps more than $1 trillion in legally owed taxes uncollected every year. To close this gap, more and consistent funding is required.

“If you add those in, I think it would not be outlandish, that the actual tax cap could approach, and possibly exceed $1 trillion” on an annual basis, Rettig has said.