House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) has criticized the IRS for failing to provide essential information in its much-anticipated report released on April 6.
The tax agency unveiled its strategic operating plan in the report, disclosing how it plans to use the $80 billion in new funding provided by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The new cash infusion will be used to hire thousands of new employees, improve tax enforcement and customer service, and audit wealthy taxpayers and corporations.
“Americans are rightly concerned the IRS will use its $80 billion pay raise to go after the middle class, and today’s announcement does nothing to ease those concerns. The American people deserve to know how their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent,” Smith said in a statement.
“The IRS’s latest document offers no specifics for the agency over the next decade. If this is a ‘plan,’ why does it omit how many employees the agency seeks to hire over ten years, fail to identify target audit rates for taxpayers, and lack specific details about how the money will be spent beyond the next two years?” he added.
The IRS, which had 78,661 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees in the fiscal year 2021, said in the report that it plans to hire nearly 30,000 new FTE employees during the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, including 8,782 hires in enforcement and 13,883 in taxpayer service.
However, the report did not provide hiring estimates beyond those years. The IRS added that its operating plan will be updated annually and that it will adjust its hiring plan.
‘More Questions Than Answers’
Smith also questioned why the Biden administration would seek billions more in funding for the IRS for the fiscal year 2024.
“The $80 billion raise is just the start,” Smith said. “The Biden Administration had the nerve to ask Congress to give the IRS another $43 billion in its annual budget request while withholding details on how it will spend the new money.”
