{"id":22517,"date":"2018-01-11T17:34:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T17:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/11\/irs-lacks-resources-to-deal-with-new-tax-law\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:56:38","slug":"irs-lacks-resources-to-deal-with-new-tax-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/2018\/01\/11\/irs-lacks-resources-to-deal-with-new-tax-law\/","title":{"rendered":"The IRS expects to answer only 4 of every 10 taxpayer questions. And no tough ones."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Due to longstanding funding cuts, a lack of trained personnel and a reluctance to innovate, the Internal Revenue Service is unprepared to deal with taxpayer needs for the first tax season under the GOP\u2019s new tax law, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service\u2019s Annual Report to Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, the IRS estimates that it will need $495 million in the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years to implement the new tax law, which would include \u201cprogramming and systems updates, answering taxpayer phone calls, drafting and publishing new forms and publications, revising regulations and issuing other guidance, training employees on the new law and guidance, and developing the systems capacity to verify compliance with new eligibility and documentation requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see daily the consequences of reduced funding of the IRS and the choices made by the agency in the face of these funding constraints,\u201d national taxpayer advocate Nina E. Olson wrote in the preface to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese impacts are real and affect everything the IRS does. Funding cuts have rendered the IRS unable to provide acceptable levels of taxpayer service, unable to update its technology to improve its efficiency and effectiveness, and unable to maintain compliance programs that both promote compliance and protect taxpayer rights. \u2019Shortcuts\u2019 have become the norm, and \u2018shortcuts\u2019 are incompatible with high-quality tax administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRS has seen an approximately 20 percent reduction in funding in 2010, when adjusted for inflation, which an IRS press release said \u201cchallenged the agency\u2019s ability to perform basic tasks of administering the tax system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, the IRS has had to \u201csharply curtail\u201d the scope of tax law questions it answers for taxpayers since 2014. The agency predicted prior to the passage of the new tax law that its workforce would be able to answer six out of 10 calls from taxpayer\u2019s seeking to speak with a live assistor during the 2018 filing season. For the full 2018 fiscal year, the IRS predicts that it will only be able to answer four of 10. And the calls that do go through are only able to answer \u201cbasic\u201d tax-law questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This inability to answer taxpayer questions largely comes down to workforce reductions, as the IRS employee training budget has been cut by nearly 75 percent since 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration is pushing businesses to withhold less in taxes from employee paychecks to give the new tax law a boost in take home pay, according to a Jan. 10, 2018, Washington Post article, a move that would require those businesses to use old forms to calculate new tax payments. The already-strained IRS plans to issue guidance on the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\t