Republican lawmakers and right-wing media figures launch new investigation after news broke that FBI raided former President Donald Trump's South Florida home on Monday Did. Direction of attack against Democrats: The Internal Revenue Service intends to use about $80 billion in new funding to pursue a similar incursion against the average American. Trump allies say those dollars will be used to hire 87,000 new IRS agents for him.
"Is your income less than $75,000 for him?" tweeted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “A new army of 87,000 Democratic IRS agents will come for you, along with 710,000 new audits for Americans earning less than $75,000.” Richard, Trump's former Director of National Intelligence・Grenell wrote on, social media platforms: Wake up, America.
Other prominent conservatives have hinted that the Biden administration intends to direct additional auditors to dig up the brunt of the president's political opponents. What do you think the left is planning to do with the 87,000 new IRS agents after the raid?" tweeted Senator Marco Rubio.
This is a concept that has taken off like wildfireand will likely result in a notable broadside for Republicans against Democrats in the midterm elections. indicates that
He only has one problem. it's not true.
The Inflation Reduction Actpassed the Senate on Sunday and is expected to head to Biden's desk after being approved by the House on Friday, a landmark climate, health care, A tax package that would phase in roughly $78 billion to the IRS over 10 years. It is estimated that such investments will allow the agency to employ about 87,000 people by 2031, according to a May 2021 Ministry of Finance report.
According to Treasury officials, the funds will fill a wide range of positions, including IT technicians, taxpayer services support staff, and experienced auditors whose primary job is to police businesses and high-income individuals. I plan to cover it. tax evader.
"It is totally inaccurate to describe any of these resources as being about increasing audit scrutiny of the middle class and small businesses."Natasha Sarin tell
At the same time, more than half of current agency employees are eligible for retirement and are expected to leave the agency within the next five years. “There’s a big wave of job cuts coming, and many of these resources are just trying to fill those positions,” said a broad study of tax avoidance, hired by the Biden administration to strengthen IRS auditing power. said economist Sarin.
Overall, the IRS could get 30,000 more employees from about 20,000 from the new funding, enough to bring the tax collection agency's staff back to what it was about 10 years ago. .
Currently, the IRS has approximately 78,000 employees. That's down from about 100,000 when he first started, according to his John Koskinen, who served as IRS commissioner from 2013 to 2017. By the time he stepped down four years later, he said, it was clear the agency was in the grip of a coordinated Republican attempt to undermine it.
"No one likes tax collectors," Koskinen told TIME.
This was an effort that dates back to 2010, when Republicans regained control of the House and soon began a series of devastating cuts to the IRS. A further decrease of more than 20 percent, execution funds decreased by 31 percent. This has made it easier for the wealthy to avoid tax fraud and large corporations to avoid billions of dollars in federal taxes.
"At the largest U.S. company with assets above her $20 billion, audit rates have risen from nearly 100% to 50%," says Janet, Senior Fellow, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy. Holtzblattt said. center. “Among wealthy individuals with incomes of $1 million or more, the audit rate fell from 8.4% in 2010 to 2.4% in 2019.”
It made it difficult for the average American to contact her IRS customer support. IRS Customer Support is inundated with requests far beyond what our staff can handle. “I used to say there was no Democrat or Republican way to run the IRS,” says Koskinen. "It's the average taxpayer who can't answer a simple question that is significantly at a disadvantage. They're not just Republicans, they're independents and Democrats," as of last month. , the IRS backlog contained 10.2 million outstanding individual returns.
Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act will also be used to modernize technology. The IRS now uses a 1960s technology called COBOL to process and retrieve individual tax returns. Government agencies are struggling to find workers with the ability to code under outdated systems, according to government officials.
A capital increase to the IRS is a key part of the Democrats' Inflation Control Act payment plan. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that stronger tax evasion and enhanced compliance could add $204 billion to her revenue over the next decade.
But while the IRS may desperately need more money, it's not most Americans' favorite government agency. No one likes handing big checks to Uncle Sam. That's a big reason the Republicans will likely continue to make this point in the coming months, and he's potentially pointing to 87,000 new she-IRS agents that never come to fruition.
When asked about the IRS funding, Hogan Gidley, Trump's former White House deputy press secretary, said, "I think a lot of people will be upset about this. Falsely described the plan as "hiring 85,000 IRS agents to follow Mom and Pop's business."
But if Guidley is right, Americans will be offended just because of what Republicans say about his IRS.
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