President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Internal Revenue Service is expected to be grilled by lawmakers Wednesday over how he intends to oversee the use of $80 billion in new funding coming to the agency over the next decade.
Daniel Werfel, a former acting IRS commissioner, will testify before the Senate Committee on Finance Wednesday morning. The full Senate, which is controlled narrowly by Democrats, is expected to later approve his nomination.
But first, Werfel could face hard questions about how he will use the new money to revitalize the struggling tax agency.
Democrats’ sweeping Inflation Reduction Act, which passed along party lines last year, approved $80 billion for the IRS over 10 years, intending to support the agency in cracking down on tax cheats and providing better service to taxpayers. It’s estimated that the agency could boost federal revenue by more than $100 billion over that time period by collecting more in taxes.
Many Republicans have made the IRS and its new funding a political target, claiming that the investment will result in additional audits of hardworking Americans.
After taking control of the House earlier this year, two of the GOP’s first votes on legislation concerned the IRS. One bill calls for rescinding nearly all the new funding for the agency and the other calls for abolishing the IRS altogether. It’s highly unlikely, though, that either bill will become law, given that Democrats still control the Senate.
The Inflation Reduction Act says that the new investment in the IRS is not “intended to increase taxes on any taxpayer or small business with a taxable income below $400,000,” though there is some uncertainty about how exactly the IRS will decide how to ramp up audits.
Some key Republican leaders continue to make the exaggerated claim that the $80 billion in new funding would be…
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