The IRS Needs Billions to Make Trillions
Underfunding the Internal Revenue Service allows scofflaws to go unpunished and will only increase the US budget deficit.
Starve the beast?
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesRegardless of how you feel about the Internal Revenue Service — it’s dysfunctional, it’s underfunded, or both — there’s a basic point that’s hard to refute: The current system to ferret out wrongdoers is terrible. And in a move that would only make it worse, House Republicans voted Monday to block new funding allocated for the agency by the last Congress.
Consider that the tax gap, or the difference between what taxpayers owe and what they actually pay, averaged $496 billion from 2014 through 2016 (the agency’s most recent estimates). Even after audits and enforcement actions, the agency collected just 14% of total taxes owed but not paid, or $68 billion.