Members Of Congress Push To Shut Down IRS Forever

Shut down the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

That’s the recommendation from the Republican Study Committee (RSC) to House Republicans. The proposal to shutter the IRS, together with other policy initiatives, were submitted by RSC Chairman Bill Flores (R-TX) to House Republican task forces for consideration.

As part of its proposal on tax reform (downloads as a pdf), the RSC slammed the IRS, writing:

In its current form, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is at best an inefficient behemoth weighing down our economy. At its worst, the IRS has shown a capacity for outright corruption and political targeting.

The proposal went on to claim:

Under the Obama Administration, the IRS has illegally targeted conservatives. It has channeled millions of taxpayer dollars away from taxpayer assistance for employee bonuses. It has allowed taxpayer information to be compromised in a data breach. The IRS has even intentionally leaked confidential taxpayer information. Despite these facts, the president’s budget actually calls for increasing spending on the IRS by $1 billion.

The solution? “[T]he complete elimination of the IRS.”

But wait: that doesn’t mean that collecting taxes would fall by the wayside. The RSC suggests that “[t]ax collection and enforcement activities would be moved to a new, smaller, and more accountable department at the Treasury.” Those who wish work for the new – not IRS – agency would “need to undergo a rigorous evaluation of their work performance before being hired to positions of trust, and would be subject to discipline and termination if they failed to honor that trust.”

Tell Congress: Pass the Fair Tax Act of 2015! Sign the petition.