One report from the Internal Revenue Service, which went public late last week, pointed out that officials have been devoting quite a bit of the agency’s recent monetary windfall into carrying out audits even as the degree to which such plans will impact the average American taxpayer sits very uncertain.
The Inflation Reduction Act from President Joe Biden recently gave the go-ahead to $80 billion to be issued to the tax enforcement agency. Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, previously stated that the money would allow members of the staff to carry out upgrades to information technology systems and to more handily help people and small businesses attempting to file their taxes; However, one report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration stated that the agency had as of yet not chosen how these actions allowed by the funds will end up impacting the number of overall audits for middle-income taxpayers.
The docuements explained that the Inflation Reduction Act set aside $45.6 billion, the vast majority of the new funds, for enforcement activities which will let agents have the power to “determine and collect taxes owed.” Close to $3.2 billion is expected to be utilized to help taxpayers with “filing and account services, pre-filing assistance, and education,” with another $4.8 billion being earmarked for a number of business systems modernizations which “can be invested” in customer service technology.
The budget for the agency which has been slated for enforcement activities will therefore increase by roughly 69% over the next decade, while the budget slated for taxpayer services will spike by 9%. The rest of the new funds will be utilized to cover the costs of facilities, telecommunications, and rent.
AN analysis of the information issued by the House Ways and Means Committee ended up stated that “when they have the numbers, they’ll perform the audits.”
“At a time when Americans are facing the double threat of sky-high inflation and an economy in recession, top bureaucrats at the IRS are huddling over how to spend their $80 billion windfall, and what technicalities they can use to justify auditing families and small businesses” explained Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) in a release. “President Biden and Secretary Yellen need to come clean with the American public about the true extent of their enforcement plans and exactly how many middle-class families will be swept up in their audit scheme. The American people are already dealing with 40-year high inflation; the last thing they need is a visit from the IRS.”
