At an event yesterday on how IRS budget cuts affect taxpayers and the tax system, agency Commissioner John Koskinen called underfunding of the agency “the most critical challenge facing the IRS today.” Commissioner Koskinen, who delivered a keynote address prior to a panel discussion hosted by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, added that “This is not just about the agency; it’s about the entire tax system.” He said that “We’re coming to a point where the significant reductions already taking place in the IRS budget are degrading the agency’s ability to deliver on its mission both during the filing season and beyond.”
Watch this highlight:
Commissioner Koskinen also addressed how underfunding the agency leads to lost revenue to the government; reduces services to individual taxpayers and businesses; threatens the development of the IRS workforce; and makes it difficult to modernize information technology resources. “It might sound like good news to corporations that we’re conducting fewer audits,” he said, “but the ones we do are likely to be more burdensome, because we have fewer examiners with specialized training who understand complex business issues.”
Get full event video and the commissioner’s prepared remarks from the event’s web page.
Commentary
IRS Commissioner Koskinen: Budget cuts mean enforcement and tax services will suffer
April 9, 2015