Criminal Enforcement and the IRS

Abstract

This nation is run, essentially, by income tax collections, and the Internal Revenue Service painstakingly enforces criminal sanctions on would-be evaders. Tax evasion strikes more directly at the sovereignty, and less directly at individual citizens, than other white-collar crimes. The raison d' etre for vigorous crimi nal tax enforcement is to deter tax evasion and to assure the taxpaying public that each individual taxpayer is held account able for his fair share of the tax burden.