Archive for IRS News

President Biden Proposes 12.3 Billion For Enhanced IRS In Fiscal 2025 Budget

President Biden Proposes 12.3 Billion For Enhanced IRS In Fiscal 2025 Budget

On Monday, March 11th President Biden proposed a fiscal 2025 budget requesting $12.3 billion in annual funding supporting the IRS’s momentum as it builds up its enforcement efforts on both non-compliant high-net worth individuals and business entities alike.

While the proposed IRS annual funding for fiscal 2025 aligns with fiscal 2023 levels, it is a decrease from President Biden’s $14.1 billion proposal for the fiscal 2024 budget. The Biden administration drafted its fiscal 2025 budget so that total annual appropriations were in line with levels agreed to in a debt-limit law last year. The IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has said that ‘it’s important for the IRS to receive robust annual funding to support the agency’s day-to-day operations, so that funds from the Inflation Reduction Act passed into law in August of 2022 can be used to properly modernize the IRS’. The additional $12.3 billion in annual funding will help bolster the IRS’s efforts to combat blatant fraud, update its technology systems and go after non-compliant taxpayers.

To review the Fiscal 2025 Budget in its entirety, please reference https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/budget_fy2025.pdf Read More

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IRS New Initiatives Using Inflation Reduction Act Funding To Ensure Complex Partnerships, Large Corporations Pay Taxes Owed

More than $482 million recovered from 1,600 millionaires who have not paid tax debts 
IRS ramps up new initiatives using Inflation Reduction Act funding to ensure complex partnerships, large corporations pay taxes owed, continues to close millionaire tax debt cases.
More than $482 million recovered from 1,600 millionaires who have not paid tax debts

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announce continued progress to expand enforcement efforts related to high-income individuals, large corporations and complex partnerships as part of wider efforts to transform the agency.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel noted Inflation Reduction Act resources continue to help in a variety of areas. In addition to earlier announcements focusing on further improving taxpayer service during the upcoming 2024 filing season, the IRS has focused IRA resources on strengthening enforcement to pursue complex partnerships, large corporations and high-income, high-wealth individuals who do not pay overdue tax bills.

The IRS shared today progress in its focus on people using partnerships to avoid paying self-employment taxes as well as new details on current enforcement priorities. The IRS is also continuing to pursue millionaires that have not paid hundreds of millions of dollars in tax debt, with an additional $360 million collected on top of the $122 million reported in late October. The IRS has now collected $482 million in ongoing efforts to recoup taxes owed by 1,600 millionaires with work continuing in this area.

“The IRS continues to increase scrutiny on high-income taxpayers as we work to reverse the historic low audit rates and limited focus that the wealthiest individuals and organizations faced in the years that predated the Inflation Reduction Act. We are adding staff and technology to ensure that the taxpayers with the highest income, including partnerships, large corporations and millionaires and billionaires, pay what is legally owed under federal law,” Werfel said. “At the same time, we are focused on improving our taxpayer service for hard-working taxpayers, offering them more in-person and online resources as part of our effort to deliver another successful tax season in 2024. The additional resources the IRS has received is making a difference for taxpayers, and we plan to build on these improvements in the months ahead.”

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Government Watchdog Says IRS Needs To Address Critical Safeguard Weaknesses

Government Watchdog Says IRS Needs To Address Critical Safeguard Weaknesses

New report highlights security risks to taxpayer information

Washington, D.C.–A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights both new and longstanding unresolved security risks to the safety of confidential taxpayer information at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The report, requested by U.S. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Missouri), identifies dozens of security weaknesses at the agency, many of which have been known by the IRS for years, and makes recommendations aimed at safeguarding and protecting taxpayer information. The report was originally requested following the unauthorized disclosure of private, legally protected information from the IRS to ProPublica—an incident of which little has been revealed, despite it being more than two years since that leak.

“From serious breaches of confidential taxpayer data and document mismanagement to poor cybersecurity training and infrastructure vulnerabilities, the IRS has a decades-long and troubled history with adequately protecting American taxpayers’ information. Now, in addition to tax collector and enforcer, the agency wants to act as tax preparer, despite the evidence showing it is unprepared to be trusted with such responsibility,” said Crapo. “Instead of devoting time and resources to developing new federal programs that would collect and expose even more sensitive information from taxpayers, the IRS should instead focus on addressing the security weaknesses identified by the GAO and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and improving its woeful customer service.”
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