Braunstein Speaks

‘The IRS is Buying Shotguns!’

This is a headline in today’s Drudge Report. The article itself is merely a federal solicitation-order for the Internal Revenue Service to purchase 60 Remington Model 870 police shotguns to add to their inventory. The shotguns are for the Criminal Investigation Division.

So what’s the story? Most police agencies use shotguns, and the Model 870 is one of the most popular. When I was with the Immigration & Naturalization Service, our quarterly firearms training included qualification with this shotgun. Anybody who has ever seen a police car has noticed the shotgun in a bracket on the dashboard.

So what’s the story? Does anyone not know that in addition to accountants and revenue agents, the IRS employs criminal investigators who get involved when criminal intent to evade taxes is suspected?

Is the intent of the Drudge Report to render the impression that the IRS is getting tougher? That the next time you are informed of an audit, that the revenue agent who visits you will be carrying a 12-gauge shotgun that fires either slugs or nine .30-caliber pellets?

Is this some new intimidation technique? The only reason that middle-class workers on salary—where withholding tax is already held back—are audited is strictly for intimidation. The IRS knows that for every salaried employee who is audited, thousands more will hear the story—and think twice about those shaky deductions.

With withholding tax already paid, most salaried workers get a “refund” of their own money which the federal government has full use of throughout the year, and are happy to see that refund check from the Treasury Department.

Ultimately though, people pay their taxes because deep-down inside they know that when the letters from the IRS stop, and attempts to telephone have failed, then they will indeed be visited by men with guns—these are the criminal investigators—and if they do not cooperate with these investigators, then at that point wayward taxpayers might notice that the IRS CID agents are carrying guns, along with handcuffs and a warrant for their arrest.

But even then, unless the tax evader engages in an armed standoff, he will not see a single shotgun.

So what’s the story that the IRS—which is the branch of the Treasury Department that is responsible for tax collection—is buying 60 more shotguns?

My guess is the new shotguns are to replace old ones which have worn out.

That’s the story.

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