IRS FUNDING REPORT CARD:
On the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS unveiled new customer service milestones that Commissioner Daniel Werfel argues underscore the importance of both the extra funding the agency received in the legislation and the need for long-term resources to meet its modernization goals.
In a statement released August 16, the IRS announced that it has scanned 225 times more forms this year than it did by the same time in 2022 — almost 850,000 forms in total. It said the number of forms and letters taxpayers can respond to online has increased from 10 to 51.
The milestones are part of the IRS’s “paperless processing” initiative it unveiled earlier this month, which aims to fully digitize operations by 2025.
The IRS also said it has expanded the customer callback option to cover up to 95 percent of callers by adding the service to an additional 73 toll-free applications, raising the total number of applications eligible for a callback option to 116.
In a call with reporters August 15, Werfel sounded both triumphant about the achievements made so far and cognizant of the long road ahead. “This is a milestone day in the history of the IRS,” Werfel said, but added, “We know we need to do more; we need to do a lot more.”
“If we spend our capital budget to pay for our operational budget, we will have issues,” Werfel said, expressing worry that IRA funds originally meant to upgrade customer service, technology, and enforcement capabilities will increasingly be needed simply to maintain day-to-day operations.
Approximately $21 billion of the nearly $80 billion allocated to the IRS in the IRA was rescinded as part of the deal between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in June to avoid a government default.
