 In the past, it has taken one to two years for the IRS to prepare and release
migration information, but now it will take three years, said J. Scott Moody,
who heads State Budget Solutions, a national group dedicated to promoting fiscal
responsibility in the state governments.
Shutterstock photo
Shutterstock photo
WHO’S MOVING?: The IRS isn’t being very forthcoming with data showing migration
between states.
“The data indicates that year after year, people are moving from high-tax ‘blue’
states like Illinois to low-tax ‘red’ states,” Moody, said.
There is no legitimate reason this data would be withheld, he said.
“The (compiling of) IRS migration data was actually cancelled a few years ago,
but it was reinstated thanks to a lot of political pressure from Congress. But
since that reinstatement they have taken a quite a long time – and that is a
disservice to taxpayers,” Moody said.
For example, according to a memo written by Ruth Schwartz of the IRS Statistics
of Income Division, migration information for 2012 will not be available until
late 2015 – three years after the returns have been filed.
“Please note that this time frame is tentative. We are limited by current
project workloads and staffing resources,” she added.
St. Louis researcher Travis Brown wrote the book “How Money Walks” based on IRS
migration data.
“This is extremely important information. We are talking about trillions of
dollars moving across the country,” he said. “This information is available
because of the urging of Congress. There is absolutely no good reason for why
the IRS can’t provide this information.”
But Brown stopped short of ascribing political motivations to the IRS’ pokiness.
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“It’s certainly an elegant theory that politics is behind this.
But generally I believe the simplest explanation: the bureaucrats
don’t value transparency,” he said. “The IRS views its job as
collecting revenue, not sharing information with the public.”
Brown added that excuses such as “staffing shortages” ring hollow to
him.
“We have heard a lot of excuses from the IRS. But the bottom line is
they are providing lots of other data. There is no reason why they
can’t provide this,” Brown said. “How else would we know where 134
million Americans choose to live and where they choose to move to?”
Moody said migration information is important for state lawmakers
to use when shaping policy to ensure growth and encourage a healthy
state business climate.
Elected officials on the state and local level can review the
migration data and determine where people are moving.
For example, Brown’s research found that between 1992 and 2002
Illinois lost $31.27 billion in annual adjusted gross taxpayer
income. The top states Illinois lost taxpayer income to were
Florida, Arizona, California, Texas and Wisconsin.
“Often times, elected officials are oblivious to where people are
moving,” Brown said. “A Chicago person may see a U-Haul in their
neighborhood and think it is heading to Aurora when in reality it is
going to Fort Myers, Fla., or Phoenix. Lawmakers can review the
information, see where people are moving and find out why and cite
the data for making policy changes such as lowering taxes.”
The IRS migration data for previous years can be viewed at:
http://www.howmoneywalks.com/irs-tax-migration/
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
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