IRS' Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Funding, To Make the Tax System Fair Again, Is Eliminated In Debt Limit Bill!

On January 18, 2023 we posted TIGTA Says That IRS' $80 Billion Funding Boost Spending Plan Is On Track, where we discussed that on August 16, 2022 we posted Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Is Law, where we discussed what's in the Inflation Reduction Act allocates $80 billion to increase enforcement by the IRS and that the Internal Revenue Service is on track to deliver the spending plan for the Inflation Reduction Act's nearly $80 billion funding boost to the Treasury Department by the Feb. 17, 2023 deadline.

On April 6, 2023 we also posted IRS To Audit Wealthy Individuals and Large Corps & Partnerships With $45.6 Billion Provided by The Inflation Reduction Act where we discussed that the Internal Revenue Service unveiled on April 6, 2023, its Strategic Operating Plan, an ambitious effort to transform the tax agency and the 150-page report to the Secretary of the Treasury outlines the agency’s historic plans to make fundamental changes following funding from last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

The plan makes clear that the resources to be deployed over the short and long term will be used to accomplish various objectives including:

Adding capacity to unpack the complex filings of high-income taxpayers, large corporations and complex partnerships and

Addressing a growing chasm between the number of experienced compliance personnel at the IRS who audit high-income, high-wealth tax filings for compliance (about 2, 600 employees) and the roughly 30, 000 individuals making more than $10 million a year, 60, 000 large corporations and 300, 000 large partnerships and S corps.

The spending plan calls for hiring and onboarding the first groups of compliance specialists to focus on large corporations and partnerships and high-income individuals in the 2023 fiscal year. Under the plan, the agency would start using new compliance tactics for the wealthy and large corporations in the 2025 fiscal year.

Now All of Those Aspirational Objectives to Guarantee
Fairness in The Tax System Are ALL GONE
as a Result of the Debt Limit Bill!

According to Law360, the $20 billion in IRS funding cuts included in the debt limit deal reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would be part of the largest-ever rescission of previously authorized funding, the chair of the House tax panel said Tuesday, May 30, 2023 in urging colleagues to support the bill.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., said the agreement to trim roughly $21.4 billion of the $80 billion funding boost the Internal Revenue Service received under the Inflation Reduction Act marks a compromise between Democrats and Republicans. (What compromise? What did the Democrats get in return?) In addition to extending the federal debt limit for about 19 months, he said the deal "downsizes the outrageous pay raise the IRS was given under one-party Democrat rule."

The Bill Calls For Not Only A Clawback Of $1.4 Billion Of IRS Spending Planned For Fiscal 2023 But Also An Additional $10 Billion Reduction In IRS Funding In Each Of Fiscal 2024 And 2025, According To A White House Source And Congressional Republicans.

Immediately rescinding nearly $1.4 billion in unspent IRS funding for fiscal 2023 would be a significant victory because it would limit the number of agents the IRS could hire, Smith said at the hearing.

The 99-page bill, unveiled Sunday after weeks of negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House, would extend the $31.4 trillion federal debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. The bill would not make changes to the energy tax incentives passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, as in the debt limit bill passed by the House last month.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., said at the hearing that the amount of funding clawed back from the IRS would be significant.

"While I Have Not Seen A CBO Estimate Yet, I Think It's
Worth Pointing Out That Rescinding IRS Funding Actually Makes This Bill More Expensive, Not Less Expensive, " Thompson Said. "A Well-Funded IRS Is In The Best Interest Of Everyone, Especially Working-Class Americans."

The White House on Tuesday urged Congress to send the debt limit bill to Biden's desk, saying that it reflects a bipartisan compromise to avoid the U.S.' first-ever default. aka Biden Caved To Extortion!

The Biden administration downplayed the rescission of the IRS funding, with a White House source saying Sunday that the IRS would be able to continue to make use of the remaining $60 billion it received under the Inflation Reduction Act over "the next several years."

Tax advisory