From October 12, 2022 post.
Today, Senate Finance Committee member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined his Republican colleagues on the committee in urging the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to implement a comprehensive oversight plan for the new $80 billion in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding.
The Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act included this massive influx of cash with no transparency or accountability measures. With 53.2 percent of the new funding devoted to enforcement, the senators are requesting answers as to how TIGTA will provide American taxpayers with needed visibility into what the IRS will do with its massive new multi-year funding stream.
“The recent boost of nearly $80 billion in supplemental funding for the IRS is devoted disproportionately to enforcement, and likewise disproportionately lacks emphasis on oversight and the need for IRS accountability and transparency to all Americans. We write also to relate our priorities of taxpayer service, business system modernization, taxpayer privacy protection, and guarding against continued unlawful IRS targeting of taxpayers on the basis of factors such as religious or political beliefs,” the senators wrote.
While over 50 percent of the $80 billion is earmarked for enforcement measures, only half of one percent will be granted to TIGTA for oversight efforts. The senators note this is especially concerning given ongoing issues with the IRS, including the agency’s history of data breaches, political targeting and failing to adequately serve taxpayers.
“Congress and the American people rely on inspectors general to help provide accountability, transparency and bipartisan inclusion in agencies’ uses of hard-earned taxpayer resources. That will especially be the case with monitoring and overseeing the outsized partisan infusion of nearly $80 billion focused on IRS enforcement,” the senators continued. “We ask that TIGTA provide initial guidance to Congress on its plans to help provide all of the American people eyes into what will transpire with the massive new IRS funding.”
Specifically, the senators ask TIGTA to explain how it will use and prioritize the extra funding it received, assess high-risk areas that IRS should be focused on for privacy protection and taxpayer service and explain the most significant deficiencies at IRS that may allow for waste, fraud and abuse in tax administration.
Original source can be found here
