Protecting Hardworking Taxpayers from Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) Overreach
The partisan Inflation Reduction Act
of 2022 included a massive $80 billion funding boost for the IRS, the
majority of which was earmarked for aggressive enforcement, while just
a sliver was set aside to improve customer service. With a
budget that now dwarves many other large federal agencies, the IRS
must especially be transparent and accountable to all Americans.
The IRS was expected to release funding plans for this bloated
budget in February, but its delivery has now been delayed. At a
recent Finance Committee hearing to consider the nominee for IRS
Commissioner, I pressed for a commitment to publicly release
this funding plan in real time to allow stakeholders and Congress an
opportunity to provide feedback.
Before the spin campaign
touting the benefits of this funding begins, Idahoans deserve to know
some baseline truths about what the funding will go toward and who
will be impacted. Read my opinion piece, “Setting the
Record Straight on Supersized IRS Funding,” here.
You can also read more about who is most likely to experience
increased audits in a piece I authored for Fox News here.
As the lead Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, I am
taking actions to make sure the IRS is working for taxpayers, and not
the other way around.
Bills I have introduced and co-sponsored
include:
- Preventing the IRS from Increasing
Audits on Those Making Less than $400,000 Per Year
To hold the Administration to its
commitment to “not raise taxes by one penny on anyone making
less than $400,000 per year,” I introduced a bill to prevent the IRS from using its
massive cash infusion to increase audits on taxpayers who earn below
this threshold. The bill has teeth, in contrast to
unenforceable, nonbinding statements of intention that the Treasury
Secretary has made, or vague edicts to not squeeze more revenue out of
small businesses and working Americans.
-
Massive Funding Boost Requires Transparency and
Accountability
To ensure the IRS is transparent and accountable to taxpayers, I
co-sponsored the IRS
Funding Accountability Act that would require the IRS to
provide Congress with an annual plan for how the agency intends to use
its $80 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, giving
power to American’s elected representatives, rather than
faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats.
-
Stopping the IRS from Snooping in Your Bank Account
I co-sponsored
the Prohibiting
IRS Financial Surveillance Act, which would prevent the IRS from
requiring financial institutions to report certain private transaction
data, like inflows and outflows of your bank account. Americans
loudly
rejected this idea in previous congresses, but must stay
vigilant.
At the aforementioned nomination hearing, I pressed
the nominee for commitments to these ideals: to make details of the
IRS funding boost public; to not increase audits on taxpayers earning
less than $400,000; and to reject proposals to collect sensitive,
private financial data on Americans. Read more here.
The new IRS Commissioner must faithfully stand up for the American
taxpayers, acting as a fair, consistent and impartial umpire for
taxpayers, rather than reflexively pro-IRS. Transparency and
accountability will be paramount. I will continue to work to
prevent the IRS from using its new, massive supplemental funding to
increase audits on Idaho’s small businesses and working
families, and focus where it should on upholding taxpayers’
rights and improving their services.
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