Complete Story
 

09/20/2019

Senate Bill Would Boost IRS Funding

The IRS has long pleaded with Congress for additional funding

On Sept. 19, 2019, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a fiscal 2020 spending bill that would fund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at $11.4 billion, including an additional $200 million for enforcement activities to address the tax gap.

The IRS has long pleaded with Congress for additional funding to aid enforcement and collection efforts but has dealt with budget cuts for many years, particularly after a targeting scandal during the Obama administration in which the agency was accused of holding up the tax-exemption applications of conservative-leaning groups. The IRS spending bill passed today specifically prohibits the IRS from using funds to “target groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological belief.”

A recent study in the American Accounting Association (AAA) journal suggested that IRS collections from audits of corporate tax returns have been severely hampered by congressional budget constraints on the agency. Researchers who contributed to the AAA journal estimated the IRS could have collected more than $34.3 billion from 2002 through 2014 with roughly $13.7 more in enforcement resources.

In June, the House approved a spending bill that would provide $12 billion in funding for the IRS, an increase of nearly $700 million from fiscal 2019.

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.

Printer-Friendly Version