About 36 million are pushing the deadline, trotting to the post office or tapping a computer keyboard to file electronically in the last two weeks. Debate is building in Washington and among experts as to whether tax compliance is slipping as a result of a sharp decline in the number of audits and other enforcement measures of the Internal Revenue Service. He argues the IRS's increased ability to use computers to match information on income-reporting documents with actual tax returns reduces the need for other tougher compliance measures. The figure was 55 percent in 1992. Civil suits filed by the IRS against recalcitrant taxpayers dropped from 2,519 in 1992 to 641 in 1999.
Some agents see their jobs as threatened if they take tough measures to collect delinquent levies.
Though the vast majority of Americans do pay their taxes honestly, if reluctantly, experts are concerned that the laxer enforcement will increase the ranks of those who don't. In particular, more sophisticated taxpayers, often with higher incomes, may take more risks. While that is a huge sum, proportionately it is less tax evasion than occurs in almost any other nation. Indeed, some experts don't see any reason for concern. It has not risen to crisis proportions.