As the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unveils plans to significantly increase audit rates for wealthy taxpayers and large corporations, the agency is also highlighting its efforts to demonstrate how it intends to maximize the billions of dollars provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and make the case for stable long-term funding levels.
The IRS’s plans, outlined in a report released Thursday, are part of an ongoing effort to show what it’s doing to maximize the funding provided by the 2022 law, passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress.
The IRS got 80 billion dollars in tax payer money to go after tax evaders to….get more tax money.
I'm curious when they're going to do the audits for tax payers paying too much. I won't hold my breath. https://t.co/gyZ3uT4sBa
— Persephone (@lanneabrooks) May 4, 2024
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel emphasized that the agency is also making the case for stable funding levels in the long term, including through funding proposed in President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget. The IRS aims to achieve a 50% jump in the audit rate for households with incomes of $10 million and above by the time people file their 2026 taxes, while also seeking to nearly triple the rate of corporate audits.
Werfel assured reporters that there are no plans to increase audits on households making less than $400,000, stating that audit rates for this group “remain at historically low levels.” The focus, he explained, is on the top of the income distribution, with the goal of bringing “coverage rates” back to levels seen more than a decade ago before underfunding and declining staff counts.
The IRS says audits are about to surge — here's who's most at risk #FJB https://t.co/59SWTodUQH
— 3DaysOfTheCondor (@3DaysCondor) May 4, 2024
The IRS now has approximately 90,000 full-time employees, up from around 79,000 in fiscal year 2022, with an end goal of around 102,500 employees by the end of the decade, which Werfel believes represents a “right-sized IRS.”
