> If the IRS helps you save $5000 [via a tax deduction] that you would have otherwise paid, then the IRS loses $5000

Many Americans have a (one-sided) adversarial relationship with the IRS, thinking it is some kind of evil entity that only exists to financially destroy everyone in America.

But the IRS only exists to implement the tax code enacted by the "representatives of the people" (ha), the US Congress. When the IRS saves someone $5,000 because of a deduction that Congress specifically created as a tax expenditure, the IRS doesn't "lose" $5,000, they are simply performing the function that they are required by law to do.