The Nation : ‘Tax Dropouts’ Targeted

The Internal Revenue Service announced it will start a new program that automatically prepares tax returns for people who refuse to file their own. IRS Assistant Commissioner William Wauben said he expects the new program will catch about 300,000 “tax dropouts” and earn the government about $2 billion. The IRS for years has used computers to match employee incomes with what their employers said those people earned as well as determining who has not paid taxes at all. But until now, it was much harder to get those people to pay up, he said. With the new program, though, computers will automatically prepare the tax cheater’s return and send out letters telling him what he owes.