While the Biden Treasury Department tries to convince Americans that $80 billion in Democrats’ new funding to supercharge the IRS will go towards better taxpayer service, most Americans will see a higher chance of being audited as a result of the bill.
Democrats’ priority is to increase enforcement with higher audits on the middle class, the Wall Street Journal editorial board writes. Four percent of new funding is dedicated towards taxpayer service, while more than half of the $80 billion is allocated for enforcement.
“It’s said that your heart lies where your treasure is, but the Biden Administration won’t admit that its heart is set on tax enforcement,” the Wall Street Journal writes.
READ: Even Treasury Admits Potential for New IRS Audits of Middle Class
READ: WSJ: Democrats Plan to Audit the Middle Class with IRS Expansion
CLICK HERE to read the full editorial.
There is a clear need for greater taxpayer customer service amidst a historic tax return backlog.
- “Focusing on service would be welcome. The IRS taxpayer-advocate office found that the backlog of returns reached 35 million last year, delaying a large share of refunds. Calling the agency wasn’t much help for anyone seeking an update. Only one in nine callers was able to reach a representative, after an average hold time of 23 minutes.”
READ: New Schumer-Manchin Bill Will Supercharge Long History of IRS Abuses
Democrats aren’t putting their money where their mouth is in their own bill. Only four percent of new funding is dedicated towards improving taxpayer service.
- “…Democrats committed only $3.2 billion of new funding to taxpayer service—4 percent of the outlay. Divided evenly over the next 10 years, the funding boost would amount to an 11 percent annual increase over the current taxpayer-services budget.
- “…between hiring service reps to help taxpayers or auditors to hound them, it’s clear what Democrats have prioritized. It’s also noteworthy that Democrats started emphasizing customer service only after public backlash to new audits.”
READ: Even Treasury Admits Potential for New IRS Audits of Middle Class
Lower- and middle- income Americans are the primary target in Democrats’ proposal to supercharge the IRS with 87,000 new agents.
- “The problem with the Administration’s publicity push is what it obscures. Democrats started playing down their plan to expand audits even before they passed the funding. So taxpayers may reasonably wonder whether the customer-service emphasis is mostly sincere, or mostly smokescreen.
- “Start with the funding gap. Enforcement is by far the biggest line item in the new IRS funding. More than half of the spending, $46 billion, will go to monitoring and compliance. That includes hiring tens of thousands of new agents and increasing the number of audits.”
Original source can be found here.
