Tax Evasion - United States

United States

Further information: Tax evasion in the United States
US Federal Revenue Lost
to Tax Evasion
Year Revenue lost
(US$ billion)
2010 305
2009 304
2008 357
2007 376
2006 350
2005 314
2004 272
2003 257
2002 269
2001 290
Total revenue lost: $3.09 trillion

In the United States, tax evasion is the purposeful, illegal attempt to evade the assessment or the payment of a tax imposed by federal law. Conviction of tax evasion may result in fines and imprisonment.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has identified small businesses and sole proprietors as the largest contributors to the tax gap between what Americans owe in federal taxes and what the federal government receives. Small businesses and sole proprietorships contribute to the tax gap because there are few ways for the government to know about skimming or non-reporting of income without mounting significant investigations.

The typical tax evader in the United States is a male under the age of 50 in the highest tax bracket and with a complicated tax return. The most common means of tax evasion is overstatement of charitable contributions, particularly church donations.

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