WTF does race have to do with taxes?

Black Stories. Black Truths.

You finally get through the confusing, stressful work of doing your taxes only to get a notice in the mail from the IRS: You're being audited. It turns out that your race plays a big role in whether you get that letter and a lot more about your taxes, like how much you might owe the IRS, which tax breaks you can get, and even which benefits you can claim. In this episode, we're looking at the racial landmines in our tax code with Dorothy A. Brown, a tax expert and author of The Whiteness Of Wealth: How The Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans And How To Fix It. Her work laid the foundations for the first research study released earlier this year uncovering the racial disparities in how the IRS audits taxpayers. We also hear from Daniel Ho, the Stanford professor who led that study.

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