BY NATHAN BYRNE

 

Spare change? A new IRS report says taxpayers missed the mark by about $385 billion dollars in 2006.

That number comes from an IRS study of that year. And the annual gap grew nearly $95 billion in the five years leading up to that.

A reporter for Bloomberg looks back on what might have been.

"If the IRS had collected all of the taxes owed that year, the U.S. could have had a surplus of as much as $136.8 billion."

More ifs pile up in this interview with Stanford law professor Joe Bankman on The Suze Orman Show.

JOE BANKMAN: “If people paid what they owed, we’d fund Social Security. We wouldn’t have a deficit.”

But the bills aren’t being paid. A Forbes staff writer explains who gets stuck with the check.

"That’s a crazy amount of money ... And yes, it means that wage earners who are paying their fair share are ponying up more to compensate for the tax cheats out there."

Here’s a chart from CNNMoney showing what causes the federal tax gap: 84 percent of it comes from corporations, small businesses and individuals underreporting income. Those who underpay what they owe or don’t file at all make up the rest of the shortfall.

But, this CNNMoney reporter says -- though this number sounds huge -- it puts things in perspective.

"The voluntary compliance rate among U.S. taxpayers has been fairly steady over the years, and Americans are among the best in the world at paying what they owe the tax man."