IRS Outlines Plan to Utilize $80B in Additional Funding

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last week unveiled a long-awaited plan for spending $80 billion in additional funding authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act last year.

The plan provides new details on how the agency will use the money over the next decade, including plans to hire thousands of new employees to audit wealthy Americans and big corporations, as well as modernize its technology and improve customer service.

Newly-confirmed IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel emphasized that the IRS is focused on pursuing high-income individuals, complex partnerships and large corporations that are not paying the taxes they owe, and that the agency has no plans to increase the audit rate for households making less than $400,000 annually.

“For years, the agency has not had the resources to provide the service people deserve. Across all of our operations we’ve seen the impact. We’ve lost employees and seen our resources stretched thin with new mandates and an increasingly complex economy,” Werfel said. “The IRS looks forward to demonstrating how the actions under this plan will translate into real improvements for taxpayers. Technology as well as in-person assistance will be cornerstones of this effort.”

Congressional Republicans derided the plan’s lack of specifics as to how many new employees the agency intends to hire over the next decade or how the money will be spent beyond the next two years.

“This is a punt, not a plan, and it raises more questions than answers about how Americans’ tax dollars will be spent to go after working families and small businesses,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO).