So, let’s debunk some of the BS that the GOP has claiming. The IRS certainly isn’t adding 87,000 armed agents. It isn’t even adding 87,000 agents. In fact, it’s not even adding 87,000 employees- unless one is looking at a ten year time period.
Moreover, we must recognize that the bulk of the current IRS employees now are knocking at retirement’s door. So, given that the GOP has blocked the ability of the IRS to fill vacancies (which is why your phone calls aren’t answered, why there are more than 17 million unprocessed paper tax returns), even when 87000 new agents are employed over the next decade, that will only work out to be an augmented employment of 40,000. (This also means there will be 117K IRS employees- about where it stood in 1990!)
And, there’s more. The number of “agents” to be hired under this bill total all of 6500. Everyone else will be CSR (customer service representatives), data specialists, tech workers, and other similars. Furthermore, the only IRS folks who ever carry guns are the “special agents” of the Criminal Investigation Division (that census is about 2100 right now, or not even 3% of all IRS employees; there used to 3500, another GOP reduction in force).
Now, when it comes to enforcement, the IRS will be devoting its new efforts for those who make more than $ 400K. For the past decade or so, the IRS has actually spent more of its time and budget going after those with much lower incomes. The focus had been on those who claimed an Earned Income Tax Credit, since most of the folks using these credits were not very sophisticated. So, when challenged by the IRS, many rolled over and paid the IRS what it asked. (That makes the IRS look good in that it collects some 85% of what is claims it is owed.)
When the IRS went after richer folks (very rarely), they had sophisticated advisors and/or attorneys and fought the IRS tooth and nail- so the collections were very low- and slow. Given the few folks on the IRS payroll, this wasn’t a good “return on investment” for them. So, they cut the auditing rate for those folks. That will change under the Inflation Reduction Act.
We also should explain what an audit really is. Often that audit is simply a mailed notice from the IRS- asking for proof of a W2, correcting a math error, and the like. As a matter of fact, given the Recovery Rebate Credit and its reporting the past two years, 78% of the notices the IRS mails involved math errors; another 18% are AUR (automated investigations, where a document may have been missed or omitted from inclusion on the tax return), and only 4.7% are really audits as our brain considers them.
I look forward to getting our phone calls answered, our taxes reviewed and refunds issued promptly- and ensuring that those who make more than $ 400K (which is about the threshold when more of their income is not recorded on W2’s, so there is more underreporting of income at those tax brackets.) pay their fair share of taxes.
