The IRS has become a sort of catch-all agency for going after “persons of interest” who may have attracted the attention of political rivals, and because of the complexity of the tax code, it is entirely possible to
find a crime to fit the person who is a target.
Depending on whether the targeted person is of a favored class or not, prosecution seems to be almost entirely discretionary.
Which is all the reason anyone should need to favor the abolition of the IRS. I favor a repeal of the 16th Amendment and believe taxes on wages are immoral. But even that can be separated from the question of how we collect taxes and how we enforce and prosecute tax evasion. A simplified code, with a simplified collection method would eliminate the need for audits, for the tax industry; would lessen the numbers of criminal and civil tax prosecutions; and would end the use of the IRS for political punitive aggression.