Congress last year secured a significant increase in the IRS’s enforcement budget over concerns about how those funds would be spent on backseat taxpayers. Proponents of ever-increasing IRS enforcement funds are quick to assure compliant taxpayers that they have nothing to worry about, but those assurances are betrayed by IRS actions.
The $80 billion budget blowout received by the IRS as part of last year’s Inflation Act (IRA) leans heavily toward enforcement funding, which it prioritized. More funding needed to improve IRS filing processing and taxpayer capacity.Obviously all these Wrong Focus on “Tax Disparity” And that enforcement had an institutional impact on how the IRS views taxpayers.
Recently, the IRS released proposed regulations that would weaken protections against authorities that excessively or unduly fine taxpayers. Even if the checks and balances are from within government agencies, the IRS still wants to be able to avoid them.
Currently, IRS officials must first obtain the approval of their superiors before imposing penalties on taxpayers. This doesn’t guarantee that the taxpayer won’t face excessive fines or penalties, but at least his overzealous IRS officials will have an advantage over the taxpayer in disputes over the amount of tax they owe. Provides a layer of protection for taxpayers if they are about to become
Instead, these proposed regulations would allow agents to impose penalties on taxpayers, notify taxpayers of penalties, and then receive supervisor approval. after the fact. In other words, agents can impose totally unreasonable and unreasonable fines and threaten taxpayers into resolving disputes without supervisory approval. Even if the taxpayer later learned that the fine had not been granted, it would have been of little comfort after being intimidated into withdrawing it.
Furthermore, the proposed IRS regulation twists the definition of “supervisor” to an absurd extent. Under the new definition, a “supervisor” is “a person who, as part of his job, directly approves the penalties of others”. This definition is circular. A supervisor is a person who approves fines. Therefore, to be considered a supervisor capable of approving fines, IRS officials must simply approve fines.
As the National Taxpayers Union Note, these proposed changes essentially change the penalty imposition process from “prepare, aim, fire” to “fire, aim, prepare”. A check on IRS officials’ authority to impose penalties would be skewed into something inconvenient to circumvent.
It’s frustrating and scary for taxpayers, but it’s a natural result of months of Congress and the president’s insistence on coercing the IRS at all costs. If the agency is repeatedly told by Congress that it will double its budget in exchange for increased revenue, Congress will not be surprised if taxpayer rights and protections are left behind. The result was an overly enthusiastic agency. beaten up in court, ignore federal regulationsand Promoting egregious violations of taxpayer privacy.
The IRS should repeal these proposed regulations, but institutional change can only come if Congress sends a clear signal that it will not tolerate the IRS ignoring taxpayer protections. Until then, taxpayers can only expect an increasingly hostile and aggressive attitude from her IRS.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
