Don Fort was quoted in a recent Tax Notes article entitled “Multiyear Budget Necessary to Meet IRS Hiring Goals, Fort Says,” published on June 28, 2021. Fort discusses the IRS’ need for consistent multiyear funding in order to “meet its hiring targets and fulfill Treasury and the Biden administration’s enforcement and service goals.” As Fort notes, this is due to the lengthy screening and onboarding process required by the IRS.
The article notes, in part:
“’The IRS needs a seven-to-10-year commitment’ in increased annual budgets, Fort said, adding, ‘You won’t see the impact right away.’
With its American Families Plan, the Biden administration has big designs for the IRS, proposing an additional $80 billion for the agency over 10 years, which one senator estimated could add more than 80,000 employees to the rolls by 2031. Even if that plan falls short, the IRS — whose budget is about 70 percent payroll — is already absorbing a $1.8 billion boost from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-2) to help distribute stimulus payments, improve taxpayer services, and modernize agency information technology.
In the near term, as lawmakers debate Treasury’s proposal to increase IRS funding by 10.4 percent — to $13.2 billion — for fiscal 2022, they need to bear in mind that the IRS takes months, or even years, to complete the hiring process for many specialized and higher-level positions, Fort warned.”
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