No IRS? No Way! What Happens When Accountants Imagine the Impossible

What would a world without the IRS look like? In this wild “what-if” scenario, Accounting ARC hosts debate the future of taxes, technology, and the survival of government as we know it.

Could the United States function without the IRS?
In one of the boldest and most entertaining episodes yet, the hosts of the Accounting ARC podcast—Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Liz Mason, CPA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA—ditch the spreadsheets and dive deep into political hypotheticals. Inspired by recent federal proposals to slash government agencies, the trio takes on a provocative thought experiment: What if the IRS was shut down entirely?

Spoiler alert: It gets complicated fast. And it’s not just about taxes.

From Cash to Crypto: Rethinking Revenue in a Post-IRS World
Patrick, CEO of VERIFYiQ and co-founder and educator for TB Academy, kicks things off by pointing out the obvious: “You need money to operate a government,” he says. Without the IRS—or something like it—there’s no enforcement mechanism to collect federal revenue. Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, counters with a bold idea: automate it all. Tax every financial transaction, and let technology do the heavy lifting. But would that just drive everyone back to cash—or even bartering with goats and eggs?

Yep. That actually came up.

State Takeover? Not So Fast.
Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder of the Center for Accounting Transformation, throws in another curveball: If the federal IRS disappears, could states take over tax collection? Maybe. But Mason points out that most states aren’t remotely equipped to manage that scale of enforcement, data processing, or fair distribution of federal funds.

“You’d be risking chaos,” she says. “Most states would need huge upgrades just to keep up.”

A New Tax Code or Total Anarchy?
From proposing a government-backed cryptocurrency to turning banks into federal tax collectors, the trio unpacks wild (but not entirely implausible) ideas about tax reform. But one thing becomes clear: without serious simplification of the tax code and tech infrastructure to back it up, the system could collapse under its own weight.

“If we automate everything,” Patrick suggests, “we could replace audits with real-time income tracking—and maybe even get more compliance.”

But would people actually pay in that system? Or would the black market—and backyard chicken trades—explode?

Big Laughs. Big Ideas. Big Questions.
Despite the serious topic, the episode balances expert insight with plenty of humor. Mason jokes about buying a house with “seven vehicles and a goat,” while Shimamoto describes dodging roosters in Hawaii. But underneath the laughs lies a critical question: How do we build a tax system that’s fair, functional, and future-ready?

Ready to imagine the unimaginable? Watch or listen to the full episode now and join the conversation about what could happen if we truly transform tax.

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