Trump lost $34 billion in corporate revenue by cutting IRS budget by $13 billion: study

Internal Revenue Service budget cuts enacted by President Donald Trump's administration are responsible for the loss of tens of billions of dollars in revenue, according to a new report.

A study from Indiana University Kelley School of Business found that the IRS could have collected an additional $34.3 billion or more from the country's largest companies.

USA Todaynoted that the figure represents "nearly 20% of the estimated gap between what corporations paid in taxes and what they owed from 2002 through 2014."

From USA Today:

Researchers looked at confidential IRS audit data from large, publicly-traded corporations for tax returns years 2000 through 2010. They estimated the government could have collected an additional $34.3 billion in taxes from those filings if they’d had $13.7 billion in additional resources.

And that estimate of lost revenue is potentially only a fraction of what the amount would have been if the study had included audit data from other businesses, individuals and foreign taxpayers.

Casey Schwab of the Kelley School of Business attributed the losses to a reduction in the scope of audits.

“While the IRS appears to still target the most aggressive positions, they can’t audit as many positions within the return. They just don’t have the resources," he explained.