Werfel’s letter cited a study on race and tax audits from Stanford University that attributed the disproportionate auditing of Black taxpayers partly to audit selection algorithms that target specific discrepancies rather than total underreporting. The study prompted a sharp rebuke of the system from Wyden and a vow from the IRS to use its $80 billion Inflation Reduction Act funding to make the tax system more equitable.

But as the Stanford scholars noted, in a nod to “seminal” research that helped inspire their work, Dorothy Brown, a Black tax law professor at Georgetown University, has been debunking the myth of a race-neutral tax system for years.