1ºDa Embram IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
The 87,000 figure includes hires across the agency, including IT and taxpayer services, not just enforcement staff as the claim suggests. And many of those hires would go toward holding staff numbers steady in the face of a history of budget cuts and a wave of projected retirements.
Projections of over 700,000 new audits of modest income filers are based on flawed assumptions, and run counter to the strategy the IRS plans to follow.
The Treasury Department says people and small businesses making under $400,000 per year will see no change, while audits of corporations and high net-worth individuals will rise.
2ºWhat does it take to get people to just stop. They know the airlines can't handle the load. They know that flying near a major holiday is filled with inconvenience and a strong possibility of being left stranded. But, they continue to go through this routine of buying tickets and suffering incredible annoyances and discomfort. Stay Home! Maybe you really don't need to fly to Disney to be uncomfortable and stand in even more extreme lines. What kind of fun is to lay shoulder to shoulder on a noisy beach? Nearly everybody has attractions, movie theaters and restaurants near their homes as well as luxury hotels and camping facilities, some with hotel like cabins. How many of these vacation spots have any restaurant that isn't some chain or serving pretty much the same burger and fries you get from a local restaurant? Why pay twenty dollars for a mediocre hamburger at Disney when you can get a much better one for ten dollars near home?
3ºMike Geier I'm actually FINE w/ IRS auditing people who claim more than 10% of their income on donations of their used junk. I've donated "stuff" to local 501c3's thrift shops for YEARS w/o ever once seeking a tax write-off, because even under the BEST of circumstances I wasn't going to donate enough to meet the requirement to be able to write off the donation. Wasn't even worth my time to make up a list. We do fine w/the standard deduction and I don't have to itemize or try to keep detailed listings of expenditures. The rules are pretty clear about having to have a signed receipt from the organization. And if you REALLY believe that wealthy people aren't going to try to cheat charities, I gotta bridge to offer you at a GREAT price! You do NOT want to know my opinion of the people who appear in those "let us HELP you with your IRS problems" (my younger sister was one of those folks) who in my estimation are just tax cheats. I file on time every year and I PAY my fair share. I am SICK of the grifters.
4ºDa Embram But even in the 2021 plan, not all of the hires would be auditors, or work in enforcement. The report said the money would go toward many things, including "hiring new specialized enforcement staff, modernizing antiquated information technology, and investing in meaningful taxpayer service."
Although the agency’s staff would increase, it’s key to note that over half of the IRS workforce is close to retirement. The plan was created with that exodus in mind and aims to hire thousands of people to simply maintain current levels. Today, the IRS has about 80,000 employees.
"The IRS will lose about 50,000 people over the next five or six years," said Natasha Sarin, Treasury’s counselor for tax policy and implementation. "A lot of this hiring is about replacing those people."
Sarin said another factor makes the 87,000 figure less than it appears to be. The agency’s projection of new hires was based on the idea that if things stayed as they were, another decade of business as usual would result in staff cuts. Over the past decade, the IRS has seen its funding drop by 20%. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of enforcement personnel fell by nearly a third. If that trend continued, the IRS would not only be replacing people lost to retirement, but to expected budget cuts.
So, the 87,000 wasn’t exclusively for people on the enforcement side, and it wasn’t all going to boost the overall size of the IRS workforce.