President Biden asked Congress on Thursday to boost spending for the IRS by 15% in fiscal 2024 to help crack down on tax cheats and administer the White House’s climate change legislation.
Mr. Biden’s $6.8 trillion budget requests an additional $1.8 billion for the IRS, boosting the agency’s overall funding to $14.1 billion. The additional revenue would account for a 15% boost from the more than $12 billion that Congress approved for the agency in December.
The White House’s budget includes $290 million in new funding to modernize the tax processing infrastructure at the IRS. Senate Republicans forced Mr. Biden to strip that money from last year’s government funding bill.
Mr. Biden’s budget also would devote an additional $642 million to improve the “taxpayer experience and expand customer service outreach to underserved communities.”
Most of the additional spending, however, would go to implementing the White House’s $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act.
While the legislation boosted IRS funding by nearly $80 billion over the next decade, it also created nearly $300 billion in new tax incentives for green energy initiatives. Administration officials say the IRS needs to expand its staff to help companies take proper advantage of the new subsidies, without causing issues in the agency’s other departments.
House Republicans say boosting IRS spending is a non-starter. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, said the entire budget proposal was “unserious” and could not muster support within the GOP-controlled House.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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