Wealthy tax cheats and large corporations are exploiting a weakened IRS to avoid paying money they legally owe. Congress has spent years cutting the agency’s staff and enforcement capacity, making it easier for the richest and most sophisticated taxpayers to bury income inside complex business structures and abusive tax schemes.

The Stop Corporations and High Earners from Avoiding Taxes and Enforce the Rules Strictly Act, or Stop CHEATERS Act, would fight back. H.R. 9736 would restore roughly $83 billion for IRS enforcement, taxpayer assistance, technology, and business-system modernization.

The legislation specifically directs the agency to focus additional auditing and enforcement resources on high-income individuals and large corporations.

That investment would generate an estimated $998 billion in net revenue over 10 years. Yale’s Budget Lab calculates that the federal government would receive approximately 13 times its upfront investment, with additional revenue continuing for decades after the funding period ends.

These investments also help ordinary taxpayers. Previous IRS funding reduced the average customer-service wait time from 28 minutes in 2022 to 3 minutes in 2024. Stronger enforcement initiatives recovered $1.3 billion from high-income and high-wealth taxpayers in 2024.

Congress must change the tax code so billionaires and wealthy corporations pay their fair share. Congress must also enforce existing tax law so anyone engaging in illegal evasion pays what they owe. Weak enforcement gives the rich and powerful a second tax system where accountability depends on how many accountants and attorneys they can afford.

We need sustained IRS investments as part of a larger plan to raise more than $10 trillion from the ultra-wealthy and big corporations and invest that revenue in healthcare, housing, childcare, nutrition, and other priorities that make life more affordable.

Tell your Representative to pass the Stop CHEATERS Act. Rebuild the IRS, crack down on high-dollar tax evasion, and make wealthy tax cheats and large corporations pay what they owe.