Thursday March 16, 2023 – The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August 2022. The Act provided $80 Billion over 10 years. The vast majority of those funds are directed to enforcement almost 60%. Only $3.2 billion – under 4% – is going to taxpayer services – like answering the phone.

Today the Taxpayer Advocate, Erin Collins, wrote “The IRA allocated the funds in a manner that does not address the needs of U.S. taxpayers, including individuals, families, and businesses,” Collins continued, “The additional funding provided by the IRA, while appreciated and welcomed, is disproportionately allocated for enforcement activities and should be reallocated to achieve a better balance with taxpayer service needs and IT modernization. We need to put taxpayers first.”

This space recently reported the IRS missed the 6 month deadline, imposed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, to provide a plan on how the IRS intends to spend the IRA money. The IRS reported that it “expects to deliver the plan to the Secretary in [the] coming weeks.” That doesn’t mean they aren’t already spending

Attorney Steven A. Leahy looks at the IRS’ progress on this episode of Today’s Tax Talk.

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/03/would-increased-funding-for-the-irs-narrow-the-tax-gap

Taxpayer advocate urges Congress to reconsider $80 billion IRS funding boost

https://www.irs.gov/pub/image/21dbmainchart.png

https://www.boropark24.com/news/irs-hires-5-000-customer-service-agents

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