The bald eagle is a national symbol. Rebelling against taxes is a national tradition. So it was fitting that one bald eagle in Virginia Beach, Virginia, inaugurated tax season by crashing into the window of a tax preparation office, smashing a three-foot hole in the glass, and then, having suffered no apparent injuries, flying back out the window.
“I was on the phone with a friend and saw it on the inside ledge,” Harry Patterson Jr., who works nearby, said of the incident in December. “I figured it was a stuffed animal. Then, it started to move. I couldn’t believe there was a bald eagle in there, and I couldn’t believe what I was saying to myself.”
Maybe the eagle isn’t a fan of the IRS. Many people aren’t either. Tax season has begun, which means millions of taxpayers will be clutching their W-2s, searching for receipts, and heaving aggrieved sighs at their kitchen tables. Most people pretty much agree that it’s “every American’s civic duty to pay taxes,” according to the IRS. But a poll conducted by the revenue service last year found that 10% of people say it’s OK to cheat on your taxes — but just a little.
The rest of them may not be inclined to cheat, but many of them are not particularly happy with the IRS, either. The IRS is one of America’s least popular federal agencies. Just half of the people in the United States say the IRS does an “excellent” or “good” job, while 30% say it’s “only fair.” Nearly 20% say its performance is “poor,” according to the latest Gallup poll on the public’s opinion of various federal agencies.
The IRS ranks ninth among 13 top departments and agencies. The ones that people like even less? The Federal Reserve Board, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and, finally, the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Unlike the opinions of other federal agencies — 64% of Republicans approve of the Federal Emergency Management Agency versus just 38% of Democrats — distrust of the IRS falls pretty evenly down party lines. According to Gallup: “The IRS is also enjoying a positive moment for its image, with 50% rating it excellent or good, up slightly from 45% in 2017. This is significantly above the 27% recorded in 2013 when the agency was under fire for allegedly targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny in applying for tax-exempt status.”
Public opinion on the IRS may be getting more positive, but it likely won’t grow too much. If anything, by the end of tax season, more people will be relating to that bald eagle.
