Changing laws challenging IRS workforce
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The already stretched Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workforce is finding it hard to “maintain a quality workforce and enforce tax laws in an environment of changing tax legislation,” according to a review of IRS tax compliance statistics conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
The “Trends in Compliance Activities Through Fiscal Year 2010″ review was conducted to provide a “statistical analysis of collection and examination function activities,” the inspector general said in his review.
The analysis found that the IRS workforce continued to grow as the challenges continued to multiply.
“The IRS faced many challenges during FY 2010, including implementation of provisions related to new tax legislation,” said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “Taken together, revisions to these laws represent the largest set of tax law changes in 20 years.”
The review noted the IRS showed the “largest hiring increase in the past five years,” as the agency hired more than 2,000 revenue agents and tax compliance officers in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009.
“During FY 2010, hiring continued at an increased pace, with the addition of nearly 1,300 revenue agents and tax compliance officers,” it noted. “However, revenue officer hiring during FY 2009 and FY 2010 continues to face the challenge of keeping pace with attrition and workload.”
There was no change in gross collections in FY 2010 from the previous year and TIGTA’s statistical analysis found that gross collections held steady over 2009 at $2.3 trillion, while the enforcement revenue collected and the number of examinations performed increased.
Citing the example of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that included 56 tax provisions, the report noted that the IRS encountered many challenges in 2010, including a variety of tax provisions that were created, extended, or expanded.
The review listed “at least 42 of the 514 Affordable Care Act provisions added to or amended the Internal Revenue Code, and at least eight required the IRS to establish new operations.”
The treasury inspector general said that the IRS officials did not comment when provided with an opportunity to review the draft report.
View full post on Finance Stories
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
