Last week, many who focus on openness in government celebrated Sunshine Week and National Freedom of Information Day on March 16, observed on the birthday of James Madison, the Father of the Constitution. These events highlight the importance of government transparency. However, instead of openness, the IRS remains shrouded in darkness. The Functional Government Initiative’s (FGI) ongoing transparency lawsuit against the IRS provides a clear example of the agency’s lack of transparency.
In February 2022, the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) submitted a Freedom of Information request seeking records on the Biden Administration’s IRS proposals. The proposals called for an $80 billion increase to the IRS budget for hiring 87,000 new agents and new rules to require taxpayers to report transactions that total as low as $600, among other proposals.
Instead of making the tax season simpler for hardworking Americans, the IRS now wants to make it even more difficult with new reporting proposals for small transactions and a dramatically increased staff for more audits. These efforts mean the IRS will have even more information on the financial lives of taxpayers, while concerns remain about leaks of confidential taxpayer information.
As the IRS continues its efforts to intrude even further into the lives of more Americans, transparency into IRS plans is still severely lacking. In its reply to our request, the IRS alarmingly claimed it had no records regarding these proposals. The IRS’s denial necessitated FGI to file a lawsuit in August 2022. Now, the IRS says they are reviewing 10,000 “potentially responsive” documents from just 12 officials searched so far. It could be an even larger amount, as more staff records are still to be searched.
Based on the page count from both Treasury and IRS reported in a recent brief they submitted, it could take 25 years to process the potentially responsive records they now claim to have. That is a lot more than “no records” found in the IRS’ initial, clearly inadequate, search.
More than seven months after the lawsuit began, FGI has received no documents, and the case remains mired in attempts to re-negotiate search parameters and continued delay in identifying all IRS officials holding key records. Despite these delays, FGI remains dedicated to exposing government dysfunction and will continue its legal fight to bring sunshine to the IRS.
Pete McGinnis is the Communications Director for the Functional Government Initiative, an organization dedicated to improving the American public’s awareness about the officials, decisions, and priorities of their government.