美国国家公共电台 NPR--Why did the IRS neglect to audit Trump during his first 2 years in office?

Why did the IRS neglect to audit¹ Trump² during his first 2 years in office?

Transcript³

NPR's A Martinez talks to former IRS national taxpayer⁴ advocate Nina Olson about how the IRS failed to audit former President Donald Trump's taxes during his first half of his presidency⁵.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Is the IRS obligated to audit the president? Agency procedures say yes, and both former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden say the department audited⁶ their tax returns regularly. Not so for former President Donald Trump. During his first two years in office, the IRS failed to audit him. Here to tell us what this could mean - we're joined by Nina Olson. She served as the IRS' national taxpayer advocate from 2001 to 2019. So, Nina, what would your concerns be about this discrepancy⁷ between how presidents were audited?

NINA OLSON: Well, you know, the mandatory⁸ audit program, which is just an administrative⁹ rule, so it's not congressional, it's not part of the law, but it is mandatory and it's in the IRS procedures that are instructions to its staff. And it - mandatory means mandatory. So the concern there is that it took until April 3, 2019, to actually begin to audit one of the returns that had been filed preceding the president's ascension to office. And it wasn't until September 2019 that an actual mandatory audit was started, and that was the only mandatory audit that occurred during the years of his presidency.

And that just means, why was it that the IRS waited until 2019 to commence a mandatory audit? And why was only one of all of the years that were being audited designated as such? I do want to say, he - you know, the president had said - the former president had said that he was constantly under audit. And the records that we now have show that he - you know, 2009 to 2013 were under audit, 2014 was under audit. The 2015 year was started the day that Chairman Neal asked for records. And it wasn't until 2016 return that was designated as a mandatory audit program. So all of those years were under audit. Just - were they under the mandatory audit?

MART?NEZ: So do you think that, Nina - because you know the IRS well - do you think that everyone kind of just went through exactly what you said and thought, well, he's being audited, so I guess it's happening or maybe just looked around and said, someone's going to do it, right?

OLSON: Well, you know, I find the timing¹⁰ of the audits¹¹ inexplicable¹². You would think that because it is a special provision and as the records kept saying, this is sensitive, that it's sensitive in two ways. You know, you need to - you don't want to be accused - the IRS bends over backwards¹³ to not be accused of being politically, you know, motivated. On the other hand, you've also got to treat it so that if there's a rule that says you're going to do a mandatory audit, then you better do the mandatory audit, or it looks politically motivated that you're not doing the audit. And so you really need to hew¹⁴ to those provisions. And in this instance, they didn't.

I think what is interesting is they - it seems like they tried to follow through their normal procedures. They were confronted with a highly complex return. They kept noting in the files that there were over 400 what we call passthrough entities¹⁵, which might have been schedule C sole proprietorships, partnerships¹⁶, limited liability companies, all of which report some income, but then pass it through to the actual taxpayer, underlying¹⁷ taxpayer, in this case, the former president. So it's sort of like a spider web of relationships, which requires a lot of looking at, which is partly why maybe some of the returns were selected late because they hadn't wrapped up the earlier returns...

MART?NEZ: Yeah.

OLSON: ...And items on the earlier returns would influence the later returns.

MART?NEZ: But Nina, reportedly only one person was assigned to the job. And just what you described in the last 30, 45 seconds, it sounds like it's a - more than a one-person job.

OLSON: Yeah, well, that was actually a subject of dispute between the representatives and the IRS when they finally started doing some of these later year returns, that they - the IRS wanted to add two more revenue agents. These are what we call the most sophisticated auditors¹⁸. And that was a - you know, you're increasing the staffing by 300%. Normally, you may have one person assigned to do what they call a risk assessment¹⁹ on the return - what items are you going to look at? Here they went ahead and had one person and wanted to expand. Congress recommended - the Ways and Means Committee recommended a format²⁰ for future presidential audits, including codifying²¹ this provision, but having at least two revenue agents and then a team of specialists.

MART?NEZ: That's Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. Nina, thank you very much.

OLSON: Thank you.

1 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

5 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

6 audited   

v.审计，查账( audit的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The accounts have to be audited by a firm of external auditors. 这些账目必须由一家外聘审计员的公司来稽查。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• E. g. few if any charities collection publishes audited accounts. 例如很少义款收集有公布经过查核的帐目。 来自互联网

7 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

8 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

9 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

10 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

11 audits   

n.审计，查账( audit的名词复数 )v.审计，查账( audit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Requires that use of all bond funds is subject to independent audits. 需要使用的所有债券基金是受独立审计。 来自互联网
• Support the locations during customer-visits, audits and quality-improvement programs. 支持客户参观，稽核和提高品质等项目。 来自互联网

12 inexplicable   

adj.无法解释的，难理解的

参考例句：

• It is now inexplicable how that development was misinterpreted.当时对这一事态发展的错误理解究竟是怎么产生的，现在已经无法说清楚了。
• There are many things which are inexplicable by science.有很多事科学还无法解释。

13 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

14 hew   

v.砍；伐；削

参考例句：

• Hew a path through the underbrush.在灌木丛中砍出一条小路。
• Plant a sapling as tall as yourself and hew it off when it is two times high of you.种一棵与自己身高一样的树苗，长到比自己高两倍时砍掉它。

15 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

16 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

17 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

18 auditors   

n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生

参考例句：

• The company has been in litigation with its previous auditors for a full year. 那家公司与前任审计员已打了整整一年的官司。
• a meeting to discuss the annual accounts and the auditors' report thereon 讨论年度报表及其审计报告的会议

19 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

20 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

21 codifying   

v.把（法律）编成法典( codify的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• For this reason, the disputations of codifying administrative procedures in domain are becoming more and more. 因此，有关行政程序法典化的各种争论在理论界也愈来愈多。 来自互联网