



Emboldened by their gains on Election Day, congressional Republicans are talking about a new round of tax cuts. Before they even consider it, they need to address a growing inequity in the current tax system.

According to former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rossotti, the IRS is so under-funded that it lets most tax scofflaws off the hook. The agency has identified millions of cases of possible or almost certain cheating, but lacks the money and personnel to pursue any more than a fraction of them.

Tens of billions of dollars may be going uncollected. Tax cheats, knowing the odds are in their favor, are getting bolder.

The IRS budget has been starved since a spate of bad publicity five years ago about overzealous auditors. But now the agency is falling hopelessly behind in keeping up with tax cheaters.

In one area alone, the use of offshore accounts to evade taxes, the IRS has identified 82,100 taxpayers, but is pursuing just 17,000 -- 21 percent. An agency consultant estimates that offshore schemes are cheating the Treasury of up to $70 billion a year.

Mr. Rossotti said the IRS needs $1.9 billion more to catch up. That's real money in a time of budget deficits, but experts say every additional dollar spent on tax enforcement would yield tens of dollars in additional collections.

Nobody likes paying taxes. Still, millions of Americans -- individuals and business owners alike -- do so honestly every year. Simple fairness demands that every taxpayer be held to the same set of rules.

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