The Internal Revenue Service needs significantly more money in order to properly help taxpayers and enforce the tax laws, two Democratic senators said.
Senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon said in a
The plea for more resources for the IRS comes after Treasury Department officials cautioned that Americans should prepare for possible delays in getting their tax refunds and difficulties in reaching the agency by phone because of staff shortages and outdated computer systems.
“Your department has warned of a ‘frustrating season’ for taxpayers,” Warren, Merkley and 11 other members of the Senate Democratic caucus, wrote in the letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They criticized a “decade-long gutting of the IRS budget, which has prevented the agency both from taking action against wealthy tax cheats and providing adequate assistance to the majority of Americans trying to honestly file their taxes.”
It’s unclear if the IRS will get any significant financial reinforcement in the near term, with Congress deadlocked on several fiscal fronts. Senators have yet to reach a deal on an omnibus annual government funding bill, which would likely include additional funding for the agency. Without a deal, the IRS budget will likely stay at current levels. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s longer-term economic program contains $80 billion in new funds for the IRS, but that bill has been stalled for more than a month.
The IRS has had its budget slashed in the past decade, all while the agency has been asked to do more — like facilitating coronavirus stimulus payments and advancing child tax credits. The IRS also has the fewest employees since the 1980s.
IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said at a conference on Wednesday he was confident that Congress would approve more money for his agency, saying that would be “epic funding for the country.”
