John,
The House just moved forward on a bill that would slash the IRS budget by 23%, the steepest cut in history.[1] At the same time, the Senate quietly tucked an $11.7 billion IRS rescission into its bipartisan appropriations bill.[2] These twin attacks would devastate the agency’s ability to serve everyday taxpayers and be a windfall for billionaire tax cheats.
Let’s be clear about what this means. When the IRS is underfunded, the wealthy tax cheats get a free pass while honest taxpayers suffer. Audits of high-income households plummet, the $700 billion annual tax gap widens, and ordinary taxpayers are left waiting months for refunds while billionaires stash profits offshore.
After a decade of neglect, the Inflation Reduction Act enacted by Democrats finally gave the IRS tools to modernize, cut call wait times, and enforce the law fairly. The bills being considered by Congress right now would rip away that progress.
House Republicans are already trying to spin this as “fiscal discipline.” But the truth is simple: by enabling billionaire tax cheats, these cuts will cost us money and increase the deficit.[3] By gutting enforcement, Congress makes it easier for the rich to avoid paying their taxes while working families get stuck with the bill. It’s a deliberate choice to tilt our tax system in favor of the wealthy few.
We can’t afford to let this slide. Prior to President Biden’s historic investment in the IRS in 2022, audit rates at the IRS had fallen to their lowest rate since 1950.[4] Congress is seeking to, once again, give millionaires and billionaires a free pass.
We must prevent a massive transfer of wealth from working people to the ultra-rich. Tell Congress to protect tax fairness by rejecting cuts to the IRS budget.
Both chambers are complicit in dismantling the progress we’ve made. The Senate’s bipartisan Labor-HHS bill, which passed committee with all but two Democrats supporting it, raids IRS modernization funds, despite earlier promises not to. House Republicans are pushing cuts that would take the agency back to the hollowed-out levels we saw after GOP zealots attacked IRS funding earlier this century.
The IRS’s job is to make sure everyone plays by the same rules. But right now, Congress is trying to stack the deck for billionaires. By stripping away IRS resources, lawmakers are putting special interests ahead of ordinary taxpayers.
Less IRS funding means fewer audits of Wall Street CEOs who make millions. It means less capacity to chase down multinational corporations that owe billions. It means higher deficits that get used as excuses to cut Social Security and Medicare. And it means more working families waiting endlessly to get the refunds they need to pay bills.
We need to stop this before it reaches the president’s desk, and that means mobilizing every tool we have to shine a spotlight on this billionaire giveaway. Tell Congress to reject IRS budget cuts and protect working families.
Thank you for standing with us to protect tax fairness, strengthen the IRS, and stop Congress from giving billionaires even more advantages.
David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
[1] House Panel Advances Bill to Cut IRS Enforcement Funding
[2] Senate Committee Approves FY 2026 Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Bill
[3] How Changes in Funding for the IRS Affect Revenues
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[4] Why I.R.S. Audits, Already at Their Lowest Levels, May Fall Further
