From [HERE] A new Democratic spending package will expand the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in an attempt to raise government revenues and fight inflation. The WSJ stated, Progressives want Joe Biden to unleash what they call “beast mode” executive power, and the Schumer-Manchin tax bill supplies the cash to turn the Internal Revenue Service into Wolverine. [MORE]

In a bill that Democrats call “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” the size of the IRS could substantially grow as part of a wider effort to ramp up “taxpayer compliance,” according to the bill’s text that references a 2021 U.S. Department of the Treasury report. The bill will raise IRS spending by nearly $80 billion over the next 10 years, adding to its current $13.7 billion budget, to hire thousands of new IRS agents as well as expand the agency’s operations, facilities and services.

The $80 billion is more than six times the current annual IRS budget of $12.6 billion. The money will be ladled out over nine years and comes with few strings attached. The main Democratic command is for the tax agency to bring the hammer down on taxpayers.

The main targets will by necessity be the middle- and upper-middle class because that’s where the money is. The Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official tax scorekeeper, says that from 78% to 90% of the money raised from under-reported income would likely come from those making less than $200,000 a year. Only 4% to 9% would come from those making more than $500,000.

The IRS knows the super-wealthy employ lawyers and accountants who make litigation time-consuming and risky. It also knows that Democrats would howl if the agency pursues fraud in the earned-income tax credit program, despite what the IRS has estimated are $18 billion in improper payments each year. [MORE]

The IRS will be given $45 billion to hire more auditors and lawyers to increase its ability to collect taxes and punish those who fail to pay what they owe. The service will also be spending over $25 billion to cover its increasing operations expenses including office rent and transportation costs.

However, in a testimony to the Senate Finance Committee in April, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said that over half of the agency’s employees work full time from home. Additionally, the service’s fleet of vehicles was already deemed to be bloated and the federal agency was unable to certify that its vehicles were only used for official business purposes, according to an Inspector General Report from 2021.

The spending package will also carve out an additional $5 billion and $3 billion for “Business Systems Modernization” and “Taxpayer Services.” The move is intended to generate $124 billion through improved “tax enforcement” measures and fight inflation, according to the Democrat summary of the bill.

Democrats are looking to raise government revenues to fund their spending package that will cost a total of $430 billion amid a period of economic malaise and declining audit rates. [MORE]