Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.

IRS Agents in new Biden Fail Plan

Swaye
Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,741 Founders Club
edited August 2022 in Tug Tavern
So, 87K new IRS agents for enforcement...was doing some reading and in 2020 it appears the IRS was authorized to hire 5000 new staff, and missed the mark due to a number of issues but incompetence (in hiring process) and low pay was a factor. In 2021 they were authorized 10000 new employees and only got 6700. This year they did a "surge" hiring to try and get an emergency 5K workers to process the 24 MILLION backlogged claims. No word on how that hiring is going. And other research indicates staffing has long been a problem for the IRS going back years (they are down over 10K workers overall from 2010 levels despite MASSIVE incentives and attempted hiring binges).

So I am wondering if an organization that can never seem to reach their hiring goals, and hiring and retention has always been an issue, how long do you think it will take to on board these 87K new Agents? The law is supposed to bring in 15 percent per year, so basically 7 years to hire them all, but with natural attrition and the obvious issues the IRS already has hiring, does anyone think they will ever really hire all these people? Enforcement will tick up slowly I'm sure, but I wouldn't worry about your audit chances going up for years.

https://www.atr.org/treasury-confirms-biden-plans-hire-87000-new-irs-agents-enough-fill-nats-park-twice/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/10/irs-hire-tax-return-backlog/
«134

Comments

  • RaceBannon
    RaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 116,027 Founders Club
    Biden and his Potemkin victories
  • rodmansrage
    rodmansrage Member Posts: 6,455
    it takes tim to hire big 4 rejects and burnouts.
  • 46XiJCAB
    46XiJCAB Member Posts: 20,967
    The IRS had millions upon millions of 2020 taxes still to process as we approached the 2021 tax year.
  • PurpleThrobber
    PurpleThrobber Member Posts: 48,789 Standard Supporter
    edited August 2022
    46XiJCAB said:

    The IRS had millions upon millions of 2020 taxes still to process as we approached the 2021 tax year.

    Truth.

    There were BILLLIONS of dollars of checks uncashed during 2020. They just sat around in IRS offices around the country unprocessed.

    I had an instance where I was TRYING to pay some payroll taxes for a company. They would not take a physical check. They demanded all payments be electronic. Took almost a year to get a PIN from them to be able to give them money. Nobody would answer the phone there.


  • DerekJohnson
    DerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 70,098 Founders Club
    Bob_C said:
    Charlie Kirk said the other day that the IRS will be focusing on lower income and middle class taxpayers because they frighten more easily and don't put up the same kind of fight during audits as do rich people. Even people making $25-30,000 a year can expect to be audited, according to Kirk.

    I'm not saying that's what will happen, only that Kirk said it.
  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,741 Founders Club

    Bob_C said:
    Charlie Kirk said the other day that the IRS will be focusing on lower income and middle class taxpayers because they frighten more easily and don't put up the same kind of fight during audits as do rich people. Even people making $25-30,000 a year can expect to be audited, according to Kirk.

    I'm not saying that's what will happen, only that Kirk said it.
    Exactly. People with money fight them and draw these tax fights out years. Who wants that hassle? Dudes making 70K a year typically just fold when the tax man shows up. Soft targets are best targets.
  • Bob_C
    Bob_C Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 13,429 Founders Club

    Bob_C said:
    Charlie Kirk said the other day that the IRS will be focusing on lower income and middle class taxpayers because they frighten more easily and don't put up the same kind of fight during audits as do rich people. Even people making $25-30,000 a year can expect to be audited, according to Kirk.

    I'm not saying that's what will happen, only that Kirk said it.
    It's pretty hard to get out of bounds on your taxes if you are adding in your W-2's and mortgage interest deductions. Nothing is really subjective there.

    It's the LLC's and S-Corp's where you are rolling your business results into your personal results where things a bit dicer. Setting off the cascade of audits is what really needs to be avoided by these small players and probably why they do fold so quickly to IRS. IRS audit findings lead to State audits, which lead to workers comp audits, etc.
  • WestlinnDuck
    WestlinnDuck Member Posts: 18,012 Standard Supporter
    Swaye said:

    So, 87K new IRS agents for enforcement...was doing some reading and in 2020 it appears the IRS was authorized to hire 5000 new staff, and missed the mark due to a number of issues but incompetence (in hiring process) and low pay was a factor. In 2021 they were authorized 10000 new employees and only got 6700. This year they did a "surge" hiring to try and get an emergency 5K workers to process the 24 MILLION backlogged claims. No word on how that hiring is going. And other research indicates staffing has long been a problem for the IRS going back years (they are down over 10K workers overall from 2010 levels despite MASSIVE incentives and attempted hiring binges).

    So I am wondering if an organization that can never seem to reach their hiring goals, and hiring and retention has always been an issue, how long do you think it will take to on board these 87K new Agents? The law is supposed to bring in 15 percent per year, so basically 7 years to hire them all, but with natural attrition and the obvious issues the IRS already has hiring, does anyone think they will ever really hire all these people? Enforcement will tick up slowly I'm sure, but I wouldn't worry about your audit chances going up for years.

    https://www.atr.org/treasury-confirms-biden-plans-hire-87000-new-irs-agents-enough-fill-nats-park-twice/

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/10/irs-hire-tax-return-backlog/

    Like teaching, being an IRS agent would suck. From a professional standpoint, they are hiring from the bottom of the barrel. Who wants to go to the neighborhood party and tell people you are an IRS agent? Hell, since biblical time they hated the publicans (tax collectors). Then toss in that merit isn't a key part of the promotion process, like all government agencies they are now obsessed with hiring and promoting minorities, transgenders and women. White males are last on that scale. The IRS computer systems are awful and outdated. The agents equipment is substandard and their agents have substandard software skills in databases and Excel.

    There just isn't that much money out there for the IRS to grab. There is a huge cash economy out there. But auditing a hispanic landscaper isn't going to get you a lot of money. What IRS agent wants to go audit a MS-13 drug dealer? If you want to get some federal money out of these people, drop the income tax rates and substitute it with a federal sales tax/gross receipts tax. All of the hardware/software infrastructure is there, and you collect the money with hardly any need for additional manpower. The rich are paying there fair share and then some. They audited the sh*t out of Trump and came up with peanuts. There is some fringe benefit and entertainment shenanigans but that doesn't add up to hundreds of billions like the dems claim. Take your family to Hawaii for your annual board of directors meeting, do the proper paperwork and you are golden.

    If you wanted to save some money, spend the billions on fixing the border and kicking out the illegals.