Danny Werfel, the head of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), says he will have to increase the number of employees to more than 100,000 in the next 3 years, which is a burning issue in the context of the political debate in the United States. Reuters reports.
Werfel said Monday, as he completes one term since taking office, that agents will be sought in the short term to improve services for taxpayers and handle complex audit cases. He said the IRS is due next month to present a detailed outline of its strategic operating plan, which calls for $60 billion in spending increases over the next 10 years.
Speaking about the staffing needs of the US Treasury, Werfel said that “we are at the level of 90 thousand. [de salariați] now.” “I think in order to get to the right size in the next 2-3 years, we need to go over 100,000, but not much over 100,000.”
Reuters notes that figure would mean an increase of more than 20,000 IRS employees from 79,000 in 2022. But at the same time, the IRS has lost 9.1% of its staff by that year compared to 2013. when it had 86,974 employees.
In 2019, the number of IRS employees reached 73,519 after years of budget cuts, which were largely resolved when Congress in Washington was under Republican control.
The report by the US Treasury Department caused concern in the Republican Party
However, the increase Werfel is now touting as a goal falls far short of the 87,000 new agents, many of them armed, that lawmakers and other Republican politicians have long said the IRS would like.
The figure comes from a 2021 report by the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., which estimated overall hiring needs to meet a wave of Treasury retirements and the need to “rebuild” staff.
As American conservatives favor low taxes and minimal government, the topic has become a point of political controversy, with prominent members of the Republican Party accusing the IRS of creating an “army.”
Werfel also warned during a press conference on Monday that the IRS needs, in addition to new employees, additional funds to conduct complex investigations and modernize the computer systems with which it operates.
“If we don’t add funds, at some point we’re going to hit a cliff and lose some of our audit capacity,” he said.
Source: Hot News
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