of income without mounting significant investigations. the most common means of tax evasion was overstatement of charitable contributions, particularly church donations. Estimates of lost government revenue The IRS estimates that the 2001 tax gap was $345 billion and for 2006 it was $450 billion. A study of the 2008 tax gap found a range of $450–$500 billion, and unreported income to be about $2 trillion, concluding that 18 to 19 percent of total reportable income was not being properly reported to the IRS. Tax evasion and inequality Generally, individuals tend to evade taxes, while companies rather avoid taxes. There is a great heterogenic among people who evade people as it is a substantial issue in society, that is creating an excessive tax gap. Studies suggest that 8% of global financial wealth lies in offshore accounts. Often, offshore wealth that is stored in tax havens stays undetected in random audits. Even though there is high diversity among people who evade taxes, there is a higher probability among the highest wealth group. According to Alstadsæter, Johannesen and Zucman 2019 the extent of taxes evaded is substantially higher with higher income, and exceptionally higher among people of the top wealth group. In line with this, the probability to appear in the Panama Papers rises significantly among the top 0.01% of the wealth group, as does the probability to own an unreported account at HSBC. However, the upper wealth group is also more inclined to use tax amnesty. See also Further reading Slemrod, Joel. 2019. "Tax Compliance and Enforcement." Journal of Economic Literature, 57 (4): 904–54. Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. 2019. The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay. W.W. Norton. References External links Tax Evasion and Fraud collected news and commentary at The Economist Employment Tax Evasion Schemes common employment schemes at IRS United States US Justice Dept press release on Jeffrey Chernick, UBS tax evader US Justice Tax Division and its enforcement efforts Informal economy