Everson Welcomes Lawmakers’ Efforts To Secure IRS Funding Demands

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

02 August 2005

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson has praised the efforts of Congress to secure additional funding to meet the agency's budget requirements, announcing that a proposed program of Taxpayer Assistance Center closures has now been suspended.

The Senate committee has provided the full $10.68 billion the President requested, and the House has passed a bill at $10.56 billion. The Internal Revenue Service’s 2005 funding is $10.24 billion.

"I appreciate the actions the Congress has taken thus far in securing more resources for the IRS, and particularly that the Senate Appropriations Committee has fully funded the President’s request,” Everson stated.

The IRS has been the subject of much criticism over its decision to close 68 of its 400 Taxpayer Assistance Centers later this year to cut costs at a time when the agency has been diverting more resources into enforcement activities. However, both the House bill as passed and the Senate Appropriations markup have included provisions in the Fiscal Year 2006 IRS budget that would stop the IRS from moving ahead with the closures, pending further study.

“The President’s budget gave us additional funding for enforcement, which helps reduce the deficit, but requires us to do some modest belt-tightening in other areas, as other federal agencies have been asked to do," Everson noted.

"We want to create efficiencies where they’d have the least impact on service. Nonetheless, I appreciate the concerns raised by Congress about our walk-in centers, and have put these closures on hold,” he added.

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