Updating the IRS Spotlight: Tracking a weakened agency

The Internal Revenue Service is essential to the functioning of the federal government, but over the past two years, the agency’s capacity has been seriously damaged. The agency has lost a quarter of its workforce and most of its senior leadership, seen serious erosion of taxpayer data privacy protections, and been threatened with political interference that would undermine its nonpartisanship and independence.

In January, we launched the IRS Spotlight to help track the impact of these immense changes. The spotlight is an online compendium that provides researchers, journalists, and the public with regularly updated and accessible data and analysis on federal tax administration.

Since its launch, the IRS Spotlight has continued to grow to incorporate new data and address developing issues. Our latest update introduces additional data and visualizations, subject-specific timelines, and an expansion of our issue areas. The spotlight now examines six areas of tax administration: taxpayer services, compliance and enforcement, leadership and workforce, modernization and technology, taxpayer privacy and immigration, and nonpartisanship.

Turning IRS data into accessible information

How long has the IRS commissioner position remained vacant? How many employees does the IRS have after workforce cuts? How long are taxpayers waiting to speak with someone on the phone? How has the number of open audits of large corporations changed over time? The expanded IRS Spotlight helps answer these questions and more with clear data visualizations drawing on recent reports on IRS performance.

Putting major developments in order

Data alone cannot fully explain what is happening at an agency undergoing rapid and unprecedented change. Context matters, too. When major personnel decisions, policy announcements, legal developments, and administrative changes unfold all at once, it can be difficult to understand how individual events relate to one another or fit into the broader picture.

The updated spotlight therefore includes subject-specific timelines for each of its six categories. These timelines bring together all these changes and newly released data in one place, so you don’t miss the forest for the trees.  

A new focus on nonpartisanship

A major reason that the U.S. tax system works to fund our public services is because taxpayers trust that their tax data will not be misused. It is essential that the tax system be administered fairly and neutrally, without regard to who holds political power.

Today, however, there are many serious questions about the IRS’s independence from political interference and political pressure. To track these concerns, we’ve added a new section, nonpartisanship, that documents instances of political interference as they occur, providing readers with a coherent record of disparate but interrelated events, such as the president’s personal lawsuit against the IRS, the attempted launch of a weaponization fund, and reports of attempted targeting of audits against the administration’s perceived political opponents. 

Where possible, we also bring quantitative data to bear on tax administration issues. For example, a recent survey of Treasury employees found that only 19% reported being “very” or “completely” confident that they could “report a suspected violation of a law, rule or regulation without experiencing retaliation.”

On this and other crucial challenges facing federal tax administration, the IRS Spotlight will continue to track changes and provide accessible updates for decisionmakers, journalists, and the public. When we introduced the IRS Spotlight, our goal was to preserve public access to essential information about federal tax administration and make that information easier to use. The latest expansion advances that goal.

If you find a gap in our data library, or have a resource you think should be included, please reach out to us at [email protected].