Not many people are big fans of the Internal Revenue Service, especially this time of year as the April 15 deadline for filing income tax returns approaches.
But the IRS is a necessary agency, and Congress has made a big mistake in cutting its budget to the point that customer service and audits are being curtailed.
What that means is the government isn’t collecting all the money it’s due from tax evaders, and honest people who want to pay their taxes on time are having a hard time getting the assistance that they need from the agency. Just ask anyone who has had to endure a long wait time on the telephone to speak with an IRS rep.
The IRS, under the Obama Administration, brought some of its troubles on itself. In 2013, the agency came under increased Republican scrutiny after it was disclosed it was unduly targeting conservative groups for investigations.
But budgets cuts had started before then. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning non-profit that analyzes government budgets, reports that the IRS budget has been cut by 18 percent since 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The Center claims the cuts have forced the IRS to reduce its workforce, severely scale back employee training and delay much-needed upgrades to information technology systems.
USA Today reports that audit rates of corporations with at least $10 million in assets and for tax-exempt organizations fell to their lowest rates in a decade. As a result, IRS collections of audit-related revenue has declined.
That might be good news for tax evaders, but not for the average taxpayer who is paying a fair share. Nor is it good for the country. After all, the IRS collects nearly all of the revenue that funds federal programs, including national defense. It supports a system of voluntary tax compliance by helping taxpayers comply with the tax code and enforcing the nation’s tax laws.
The agency did get a bump in funding near the end of 2015 as compared to the previous fiscal year, but not nearly enough to make up for previous cuts.
Meanwhile, the IRS is getting no love in the presidential race. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the leading Republican candidates, has gone so far as to advocate abolishing the agency. His tax plan, he claims, would enable “every citizen to fill out their taxes on a postcard, so we can eliminate the IRS.”
That’s about as likely to happen as Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico and having Mexico pay for it. And even if it did, some government agency would still have to receive the post cards and make sure every taxpayer mailed one.
Can the tax code be simplified and improved? Probably so. In fact, more than likely. But starving the agency that is responsible for administering the system in place isn’t the way to do it.
