SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An audit by the Oregon secretary of state’s office says thousands of Oregon workers get away without paying state taxes because revenue officials don’t do enough to identify them.
The audit released Monday faults the state’s main tax collectors for not matching federal tax data with state tax rolls. The audit contends Oregon missed at least 66,000 who should have filed state tax returns in 2007 but did not. The secretary of state’s office contends that cost the state budget more than $100 million that year.
State Revenue Director Elizabeth Harchenko says her department devotes a lot of time and employees to hunting down tens of thousands of tax cheats and has its hands full with trying to get them to pay up. The department has come up with more than 20,000 names of people who should have filed state taxes but didn’t.
Harchenko says she agrees with the audit findings and her agency will start matching federal and state tax data.
