IRS Vows More Audits For Wealthy Taxpayers

The IRS has just released details on how it plans to use $80 billion for improved operations, pledging to invest in new technology, hire more customer service representatives and expand its ability to audit high-wealth taxpayers, Fatima Hussein reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The agency’s newly released strategic operating plan lays out the specifics of how the IRS will allocate the $80 billion, through the fiscal year 2031, that was approved in that legislation.

While some Republicans have suggested without evidence that the money from the Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill would help create a mob of armed auditors to harass middle-class taxpayers, new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said it will not include spending for new agents with guns.

The agency’s newly released strategic operating plan lays out the specifics of how the IRS will allocate the $80 billion, through the fiscal year 2031, that was approved in that legislation.

Some improvements have been long expected, such as bringing more paper-based systems online and answering taxpayers’ phone calls promptly.

Others are more ambitious: Continuing to explore ways to create a government-operated electronic free-file tax return system, for example.

No hiring boost is foreseen for the criminal investigation unit, which represents 3% of the agency’s workforce and employed roughly 2,077 special agents as of the 2022 budget year, according to the IRS’ annual report.

Those are the agents who may be armed. There are “no plans to increase” that division. “That will stay at its current rate.” Werfel stressed that those agents will be fully armed with calculators.

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