Not long ago, IRS Commissioner Koskinen complained that the IRS “will not be able to replace” as many as 1,800 enforcement officials due to budget cuts. A short time later, the Commissioner reported on the hires and the ramp up in enforcement. Rep. Chaffetz wrote that it sounded fishy:
Now, less than three months later, without that increase, you have announced plans to increase enforcement activities. The inescapable conclusion is that your testimony to Congress was inaccurate, reflecting either an attempt to exaggerate IRS’s budget needs or a management failure in understanding the needs of your organization.”
Make no mistake, the Chaffetz letter to the IRS Commissioner is firm. There was also the IRS Commissioner’s speech to the National Press Club March 24, 2016, which included stark budget numbers:
Tell Congress: Pass the Fair Tax Act of 2015! Sign the petition.Our budget for this fiscal year is about $900 million below 2010. Since 70 percent of our budget is personnel, we have absorbed these cuts mostly by not replacing employees who leave for other jobs, or who retire, like Angelo or Bill. If it’s a critical position, we may shift another employee into that slot. But it’s still a net drop in the size of our workforce. As a result, we expect the IRS workforce to shrink by another 2,000 to 3,000 full-time employees this year. That will add up to about 17,000 full-time employees lost through attrition since 2010.”