PrepTest 158, Section 4, Question 1
The government's tax collection agency has not followed(44 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AThe plan to(18 more words not shown)
- BThe number of(15 more words not shown)
- CMost audits of(10 more words not shown)
- DIt generally takes(14 more words not shown)
- EOver the last(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Not one completed audit? That sounds bad for the agency, but does it show that the agency hasn't followed through on its plan?
Audits are the primary way to detect corporate tax violations. That doesn't make them the only way. Maybe the agency has pursued violations through some other enforcement mechanism. We can accept the fact about completed audits and still question the conclusion that the promised crackdown hasn't happened.
What we’re looking for
For this weaken question, I'd look for evidence that the agency has been cracking down in another way. The answer needs to challenge the claim about following through on the plan, not simply tell us more about taxes.
Working the answers
- A
Being part of a broader campaign tells us what the plan belongs to. It doesn't tell us whether the agency carried out the corporate tax portion. The government could announce an ambitious campaign and then do nothing about these violations.
- B
Personal income taxes aren't corporate income taxes. The agency could do excellent work auditing individuals while ignoring corporations. We need evidence bearing on the promised corporate tax crackdown.
- C
What audits usually find is different from whether the agency is doing them. An audit that reveals no significant violation could still be part of an effort to enforce the law. C gives us no reason to think the agency has followed through on its plan.
- DCorrect
This gives us a different objection: no completed audits doesn't mean no audits underway. If an audit generally takes longer than a year, the agency could have started work promptly when it announced the plan and still have nothing finished.
Imagine these audits take three years. The agency began them a year ago, and someone complains that none are done. That would be an unfair way to judge whether the agency has followed through. D doesn't prove that audits have begun, but it explains why the lack of completed audits is weak evidence that the agency has failed to act.
- E
The plan was announced one year ago. A comparison of two five-year periods doesn't establish what the agency has done since that announcement. Most of the decline could have happened before the new plan existed. E doesn't give us the evidence of follow-through we need.
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