IRS 2014 Budget Reduced by 4.4%: Despite the National Taxpayer Advocate’s request for additional funding for the IRS, President Obama signed into law an omnibus appropriations bill for funding the government during fiscal year 2014, which cuts the IRS budget by $526 million. In her annual report to Congress, the National Taxpayer Advocate noted that in fiscal year 2013, the IRS could only answer 61% of taxpayer phone calls and had slashed its training budget by 87%. At the same time, the IRS received substantially more tax returns and phone calls and faced the increasing burden of dealing with identity theft and tax fraud. The National Taxpayer Advocate recommended that the agency not be subject to spending caps, since, according to the report, it does generate $255 in revenue for every $1 spent.
NOTE from Henry:- While some taxpayers may enjoy seeing news like this assuming less audits will occur, on the other side this means more correspondence (automated) audits that are often completed by poorly trained/less qualified employees. It also makes our job more difficult to fight an error since there is no one there to help us get the information necessary or schedule a hearing. We shall see how this plays out. Stay tuned
