Haven't seen discussion anywhere about the "$80 Billion" to hire "87,000 agents".

That is nearly $920,000 per position.

What's the rest of the story?

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
Haven't seen discussion anywhere about the "$80 Billion" to hire "87,000 agents".

That is nearly $920,000 per position.

What's the rest of the story?

https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...0601935/m/5360070494


https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...0601935/m/2620068394

Thanks, but not quite the same
question.

WASHINGTON—The Internal Revenue Service faces both political opposition and staffing challenges as it prepares for an $80 billion infusion to be spent over the coming decade.

The new funding is a key component of the climate, healthcare and tax legislation that President Biden is expected to soon sign into law.

Proponents say the money will increase government revenue by enhancing efforts to collect more owed taxes, digitize more of the agency’s operations and improve its ability to respond to taxpayers’ inquiries.

Republicans say the funding could fuel undue audits on many Americans, and their opposition means the money could be in jeopardy if the GOP wins control of the nation’s purse strings. Meanwhile, the IRS could have a hard time hiring thousands of new tax lawyers, accountants and technology specialists at government pay levels in a competitive labor market.



“It’s a significant challenge, but it’s a lot more fun than trying to deal with less money,” said John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner. “It’s obviously a sea change for the IRS after the last 10 or 12 years with budget cuts.”

Between 2010 and 2020, as Congress reduced the IRS budget, the agency lost a net 15% of its staff, hampering the number of audits it conducts and reducing the number of criminal investigations it opens by about half. Paperwork backlogs have delayed millions of tax refunds, and only about one in 10 calls to the IRS got through to an employee earlier this year, according to the agency’s taxpayer advocate. The IRS declined to comment.

Republicans say the $46.5 billion in the legislation dedicated to enforcement efforts will translate into more audits for middle and low-income Americans. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said on Twitter Thursday that “Democrats in Washington plan to hire an army of 87,000 IRS agents so they can audit more Americans like you.”

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats have rejected the Republican criticisms. A Treasury Department official said many of the 87,000 new IRS staffers will replace more than 50,000 employees set to retire over the next decade and will serve in a variety of different roles, not just tax collection. Former IRS officials also say technology funded by the money could also improve the accuracy of the agency’s audits, meaning it would less frequently target individuals or businesses that don’t have any tax issues.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter this week to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig that the $80 billion would be used partly to enforce tax laws against high earners, large corporations and complex partnerships that don’t pay what they owe.


IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig has said as much as $1 trillion in owed tax revenue is uncollected every year.
PHOTO: KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
She directed the IRS not to use any additional resources to increase the audit rate of households and small businesses with incomes below $400,000 a year.

Natasha Sarin, Treasury’s counselor for tax policy and implementation, said the IRS would lay out its plans for hiring and expanding the agency in the coming months.

The IRS gets the $80 billion lump sum this fiscal year, with 10 years to use it. The money is in addition to Congress’s annual budget appropriation, which was $12.6 billion this year.

“Are there risks associated with it? There are always risks and one of them is there are politics that chop it back and the other is they do stupid things with the money,” said Steven Miller, a former career IRS staffer who served as the acting commissioner in 2012. “If the House swings Republican, how long will that $80 billion be in the law?”

Republicans are favored to win control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

Enhancing the agency’s enforcement efforts could raise the government’s net revenue over the next decade, according to several estimates. The Congressional Budget Office projects the gain at roughly $120 billion between 2022 and 2031, while the Biden administration pegs it at roughly $400 billion. Mr. Rettig has said as much as $1 trillion in owed tax revenue is uncollected every year.

The highest-earning Americans have been subject to fewer audits in recent years, and the Treasury Department hopes to generate more revenue directly from high earners and indirectly by discouraging tax avoidance. A report from the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency, found that while audit rates decreased for all income levels between 2010 and 2019, they fell most for taxpayers with higher incomes.



“The reason you’re seeing that statistic is not because the IRS is making choices to go after a certain type of taxpayer,” said Ms. Sarin. “It is because they do not have the resources today to be able to do the high-end work.”

Hiring and training the staff necessary to work on those audits, a process that can take years, as well as luring people to work on overhauling the agency’s technology, could prove difficult. The IRS is already straining to hire entry-level employees to clear the backlog of paperwork. Ms. Sarin said the IRS first has to increase its human-resources staff so it can hire thousands of other employees over the decade.

Democrats wanted to include measures in the bill to let the IRS make some hires on an expedited basis and at a higher salary level. But Senate Republicans stripped the provisions on procedural grounds.

“One of the reasons that the government often struggles to be as effective as people want them to be is that there are limitations on simply how much they can pay compared to the private sector,” said Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University School of Law.

Nina Olson, a former national taxpayer advocate at the IRS under both Republican and Democratic administrations, said the legislation has the potential to improve taxpayers’ experience with the agency—as long as it is transparent about its plans and commits to making its services more accessible to Americans, rather than just focusing on collection efforts.

“This is needed,” she said. “But we need to see what they’re doing.”

The Democrats' Bill on Climate, Health and Taxes
What to know about the Inflation Reduction Act, selected by the editors

LINk; https://www.wsj.com/articles/b...d-11660383180?page=1

I believe the 80B is an increase in the overall budget, not specifically for new hires.

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
Haven't seen discussion anywhere about the "$80 Billion" to hire "87,000 agents".

That is nearly $920,000 per position.

What's the rest of the story?

Over ten years, so $920,000 per position/10 years=$92,000 per position per year.

quote:

the legislation has the potential to improve taxpayers’ experience with the agency—as long as it is transparent about its plans and commits to making its services more accessible to Americans, rather than just focusing on collection efforts.

Why is it there is always a "but" when it comes to the government? I know, I know, rhetorical question....

So they can upgrade computers from 486 to Dual core processors?

^^^^^^^^^^^^
I heard it was for Texas Instrument calculators and ruled notebook paper.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
So they can upgrade computers from 486 to Dual core processors?

Maybe they were 8088 processors?