IRS Wants More Money And People

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, New York

13 April 2004

The Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board last week asked the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee for an additional $530 million on its fiscal 2005 budget of $10.7 billion and an additional 3,300 enforcement agents. President Bush's budget had proposed just 2,000 additional personnel.

Oversight Board chair Nancy Killefer said the current fiscal 2005 budget requested by the White House wouldn't be sufficient to maintain strict enforcement and customer service levels. “The government is missing out on “billions of dollars . . . simply because the IRS does not have the resources to do its job,” said Killefer.

Earlier in the week, IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson announced proudly: “Working with the Justice Department, the IRS is ramping up its enforcement efforts, particularly for high-income individuals and corporations, so that Americans know that when they pay taxes, their neighbors and competitors are doing the same. We have arrested the decline in enforcement actions that began in the early nineties.”

The IRS also announced last week that 48.5 million tax returns have been submitted through e-filing, more than five million (12%) ahead of last year's count. In the past, the IRS has made much of the cost savings to be expected from the growth in e-filing.

Hmmm.

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