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Advisory Committee: IRS Needs Funds

IRS Advisory CouncilLack of funds remain a critical issue for the Internal Revenue Service, according to the annual report of the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. The conclusions concentrates on the impact of the highly publicized budget cuts for the agency, which the council says amount to about $1 billion since fiscal 2010.


The report by the committee, chaired by Timothy McCormally, notes the budget cuts have be accompanied by an increased workload, that include responsibilities under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and other complex laws.

"The consequences of the cutbacks have not been minor or hypothetical. They undeniably affect every facet of the agency's work," the committee wrote.

These include hiring freezes, training reductions, and the scaling back of both taxpayer assistance and enforcement activities. The IRS is not doing more with less, but has been forced to "do less with less."

The report provided a litany of the results. It said such cuts seriously hampered investment in modernizing the IRS's Information Technology infrastruhave cture while the impact on employee recruitment, and essential training has compromised the quality and timeliness of telephone assistance and other taxpayer services.

The report continued underfunding has slowed refund processing of refunds and issuance of forms and guidance, impaired the IRS's ability to address tax noncompliance through audits and other enforcement and collection mechanisms, and made safeguarding taxpayer information more difficult.

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