How the IRS is going after billionaires dodging taxes

Good morning. It's Monday, February 5th. I'm Yasmeen Khan, in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Coming up, how prison labor may be connected to the food you're eating, the IRS cracks down on wealthy tax evaders, and the Grammys' biggest moments.

But first, a quick look at a few major stories in the news. The Senate has a bipartisan deal for a bill to fund border security and new aid to Ukraine and Israel. The 118 billion dollar legislation is the result of weeks of negotiations, but it's not clear what can pass in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson says this bill is dead on arrival. Many House Republicans say they want much tougher border measures in exchange for new military aid for Ukraine and Israel.

What happened on Friday was the beginning, not the end of our response, and that there will be more steps, some seen, some perhaps unseen, all in an effort to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, as three service members tragically were at Tower 22, we will respond, and we will respond forcefully, and we will respond in a sustained way.

And Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region, as talks continue on a possible ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages and prisoners. In California, a severe storm is hitting the state, with residents bracing for days of heavy rain, snow, wind, flooding, and power outages. Northern California has already been feeling the impact of the severe weather, with more than half a million people without power at one point. The dangerous conditions have started to move south.

It's the country's worst disaster since the earthquake that killed hundreds of people nearly 15 years ago. If you've ever bought food at McDonald's, Whole Foods, Costco, or Walmart, it's likely you've eaten food produced by U.S. prison labor.

"The Associated Press" has an extensive investigation into the spider web of supply chains that link restaurants and grocery stores to incarcerated people who are often forced to work for little or no pay. Margie Mason is an investigative reporter who worked on the piece for two years. She and her reporting partner traveled the country to observe this system at work with their own eyes. In one case, they followed a truckload of cattle raised at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola.

We followed that cattle from the gates of the prison to an auction house. We watched those cattle be sold. We watched them getting loaded back onto another truck. And then we followed them another 600 miles from Louisiana to Texas to a meat processor. And from there we were able to determine that that beef was going into the supply chains of really major companies.

At Angola, they raised cattle, picked cotton and vegetables. One man who spent more than 50 years there said water was scarce, and he saw people pass out in triple-digit heat. In many cases, people in prison earn pennies an hour for their work, or sometimes nothing. And if they refuse to work, they might risk their chance of parole or get sent to solitary confinement.

A lot of these big prison farms, they raise this beef and then they sell it on the open market. But then they end up buying the cheaper stuff, you know, or the stuff that's filled with soy or whatever. And that's then what is fed to the prisoners. And they're saying, you know, we're raising this and we're having to eat this lesser quality meat or, in some cases, we're not getting much meat at all.

Prisons say that the work is not all forced, that it helps build skills so that people can find work after their release, and that it saves taxpayer money because some of the food produced by incarcerated people is served in prisons. The "AP" contacted the food companies that it traced to prison labor. Most of the companies did not respond. Some, including McDonald's, said they're investigating. Whole Foods said it doesn't allow prison labor in products it sells.

And so voters are going to have a chance to change it. And what then that would mean is if the language is changed, then that opens up the possibility for legal action to be taken.

In the meantime, some prisoners, like people at Angola, are working on the same fields where enslaved people were once forced to work.

The IRS says it's stepping up efforts to go after rich people who aren't paying their fair share of taxes.

If you're high wealth with a tax issue, you will see more scrutiny.

That's IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel speaking with "NPR" recently.

So we are absolutely ramping up efforts to figure out where we have wealthy filers. These are millionaires and billionaires, but also large corporations and complex partnerships, who are increasingly shielding their income and not paying what they owe.

Money has been an issue for the agency. For years, the IRS said it's been chronically underfunded. Republicans have pushed to cut its funding and supported eliminating the agency altogether. In 2022, the IRS got an 80 billion dollar budget boost, but a quarter of that was taken back. Werfel told "NPR" how the IRS has been putting the money it did get to use.

So we, for example, created a high risk list of 1600 millionaires and billionaires who owe back taxes. And we've put in a laser focused effort to collect that money. And we're working our way through that list. In just several months, we've collected nearly 200 million dollars in back taxes. And we're not even through the list yet.

The IRS says it's also doing a lot to improve service for the rest of us non-wealthy taxpayers. For example, it hired thousands of people to answer phones and taxpayer questions. The IRS says it was able to reduce phone wait times to three minutes, down from nearly half an hour. It's also putting in new technology to deal more efficiently with all the filings that still get mailed in on paper.

Women artists ruled the Grammys last night. The awards have often been criticized for overlooking the work of women, but women dominated nominations in the top categories, and they swept the big three awards.

Miley Cyrus won Record of the Year with "Flowers." Song of the Year was "What Was I Made For," which Billie Eilish co-wrote for the Barbie soundtrack with her brother, Finneas O'Connell. And Taylor Swift made history, winning Album of the Year for "Midnights."

All I want to do is keep doing this. So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do what I love so much.

That win moved Swift ahead of legends like Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, and Frank Sinatra as the only artist to win Album of the Year four times. During the ceremony, she also revealed that her next album, "The Tortured Poets Department", is coming out in April. Iconic women artists also had some of the best performances of the night. Tracy Chapman made a rare public appearance to duet with Luke Combs.

Joni Mitchell also performed at the ceremony for the first time. It capped a long recovery from a brain aneurysm she had nine years ago, which left her unable to speak or walk.

Mitchell won Best Folk Album more than 50 years after her first Grammy win. And, Jay-Z accepted an award for Global Impact.

He talked about how the Grammys were slow to recognize rap. And he said it was frustrating that Beyonce has never won Album of the Year even as the most awarded artist in Grammys history. You can find more Grammys coverage on the Apple News app, along with all the stories we talked about. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article from "Vanity Fair" playing for you next.