The IRS has a web page titled “How criminal investigations are initiated, here” (last reviewed or updated 8/20/24 and visited 11/13/24). It is a “lite” introduction to the topic. I found the concluding “claim” interesting:
Conviction
The ultimate goal of an IRS
Criminal Investigation prosecution recommendation is to obtain a conviction -
either by a guilty verdict or plea. Approximately 3,000 criminal prosecutions
per year provide a deterrent effect and signals to our compliant taxpayers that
fraud will not be tolerated.
Notice how the subject shifts from the first sentence to the second. The first sentence talks about conviction (as does the heading). The second sentence talks about prosecutions which is not the same as convictions unless the implication is that there is a 100% conviction rate. (The conviction rate is not 100% which I address later in this blog post.)
The IRS offers these statistics in its annual Data Book, Table 26 currently titled “SOI Tax Stats - Criminal Investigation Program, by Status or Disposition - IRS Data Book Table 26,” here (last reviewed or updated 8/20/24; viewed 11/13/24). Here is a screenshot of the 2023 Table 26:
Note that the indictments and informations were 1,676, the total for legal source and illegal source financial crimes. The 2022 numbers were 1,670 for legal and illegal source prosecutions. So, the claim of 3,000 prosecutions is incorrect based on the IRS numbers. However, the above statistics are for prosecutions from investigations by IRS CI. Tax prosecutions may come from other sources (e.g., government investigations other than from IRS CI in which tax crimes may be added to nontax crimes for prosecution reasons). So, such nontax prosecutions may account for the difference of about 1,300.
