Democrats are accusing Republicans of pressuring the IRS to create "phantom windfalls" by withholding as little tax as possible to give a misleading picture of increased take-home pay from the GOP tax legislation, Politico reported on Wednesday.
This means that workers would see an artificially take-home pay before the midterm election, only to then have a much smaller or non-existent refund next year when the vote is over.
Although the IRS is supposed to be apolitical, how it decides to implement withholding could significantly influence the shaping of public opinion on the controversial law when workers start seeing the changes in the paychecks as soon as next month.
The IRS is currently working on new withholding tables to reflect the new tax law.
The top Democrats on the tax-writing committees — Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts — warned acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter, an appointee of President Donald Trump, that the administration will "unduly influence" the IRS to set tax withholding artificially low in order to exaggerate the increase in pay people will receive due to the tax cut legislation, according to the Washington Examiner.
"The Trump administration has tried at every turn to con the middle class into buying a tax scam that showers multinational corporations and the politically powerful with massive breaks," Wyden said.
"I'm proud to work with Ranking Member Neal to hold this administration accountable for any attempts to play shell games with middle-class wages and to keep millions of hardworking Americans from getting hit with unfair tax bills."
The Democratic congressmen also sent a letter to Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro requesting that the GAO study the 2018 withholding tables to determine as an independent arbiter if they are a systematic attempt to under-withhold, AccountingToday reported.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady responded to the charges by saying that "there's never been any question about the IRS's timely, accurate withholding tables, nor should there be today" and insisted that Democrats will "do and say just about anything to cast doubt" on the GOP tax program, Politico reported.
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