08/16/2022
IT HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS THAT THE IRS IS HIRING 87,000 AGENTS.
However, the rumors are not all true.
They are filling positions all across the board from phone agents answering calls, processing data, auditors, and field agents. That is to get the IRS back up to speed Since COVID the IRS has been seriously backlogged in processing. At this time, they and several other Federal agemcies, are backlogged 22 months. That creates a disservice for the taxpayer when transactions and data cannot be processed timely.
And No, the new hires, agents, do not carry guns. Only Special Agents in the Criminal Investigation Division carry guns. No others.
According to the Treasury Department, “the resources to modernize the IRS will be used to improve taxpayer services, from answering the phones to improving IT systems – and to crack down on high-income and corporate tax evaders who cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars each year.”
This is not targeting the middle class.
Previous analyses of the agency have revealed that the IRS needs more employees. National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins said in her midyear report to Congress, published in June 2022, that many of the challenges the IRS is facing “stem from inadequate staffing, including limited staffing in Submission Processing and telephone call centers.”
In 2021, the IRS had less than 80,000 employees, a decrease of nearly 13% since 2012, according to the agency’s website.
Rettig wrote in his letter that the IRS has “fewer front-line, experienced examiners in the field than at any time since World War II, and fewer employees than at any time since the 1970s.”
“Advances in technology have been helpful but have not kept pace with the ever-increasing responsibilities and challenges facing the IRS,” he said. “As a result, the IRS has for too long been unable to pursue meaningful, impactful examinations of large corporate and high-networth taxpayers to ensure they are paying their fair share.”
For most of us, this is nothing to fear.
See more at www.TaxBulldog.com
Gary W Lundgren, EA
Aug 15, 2022