The ire of Republican lawmakers against the Service that collects the money to pay the lawmakers goes back a while….
The Republican’s should grow the fuck up…..
Rich people will have to figurte out a new way to sheild their money so us middlwe class taxpayers can keep carrying them on our backs…..
The 87,000 new IRS auditors figure seems to have come out thin air also….
“For decades, Republicans have starved the IRS of funding, and now American taxpayers are paying the price,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said in a statement back in February. “The IRS needs greater support to carry out its most essential functions, like processing tax returns, enforcing the tax code, and closing the tax gap. Without resources from Congress to update its woefully out-of-date technology, the agency simply cannot operate at the level American taxpayers expect.”
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly argued against providing more money for the IRS.
“This additional money for the IRS to target all Americans is absolutely wrong. It will target our families, it’s going to target our small businesses, and it’s going to go after them to get them to pay more money,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said back in December 2021 about the Democrats’ unsuccessful Build Back Better legislation, which also proposed an IRS enforcement funding boost.
Experts say it’s not entirely clear how the IRS will actually use its new funding.
The bill’s “language was pretty generic,” former Congressional Budget Office tax analyst Janet Holtzblatt said in an interview. “It doesn’t really get into the specifics about how the money aligns to a particular task. It certainly doesn’t say how many employees there will be, how much will be spent on computers, how much will be spent on rent. But all of that will be covered.”
Republicans have made the argument about 87,000 new tax collectors targeting the middle class by pointing to a Treasury report released in May 2021 that said that $80 billion would allow for 86,852 new full-time employees at the IRS. Experts say they wouldn’t all be auditors.
“They didn’t give details on how they came up with this very precise number,” Janet Holtzblatt said. “But they didn’t ever say that those were all going to be auditors. The report said that part of the new workforce would be customer service reps to help navigate issues.” …
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The Treasury Department and the IRS have both made assurances that rich people and corporations, whose audit rates have decreased more sharply in recent years relative to regular Americans, are the intended targets.
The IRS criminal investigation division (IRS-CI), who are federal law enforcement officials like the FBI and U.S. Marshals, told The Hill that they are not going after any one segment of American taxpayers other than people who cheat on their taxes.
The division said in a statement to The Hill that its “special agents are sworn law enforcement agents investigating tax crimes and criminal activities that may include gangs, drug dealers, and other dangerous criminals. In order to carry out their daily duties, such as search warrants and arrests, CI special agents carry firearms. They also receive continuous annual training in order to carry firearms.” ….