The IRS’s appropriations have declined to below fiscal 2009 levels and full time employees have been reduced by about 8,000 since 2009, causing performance in enforcement and taxpayer service to decrease or fluctuate, GAO has found.
For example, it said that in the fiscal 2014 congressional justification the audit coverage target for individual examinations was 1 percent—however, the target was lowered to 0.8 percent in the fiscal 2015 congressional justification.
Not including other budgetary resources such as user fees, the fiscal 2015 budget request for IRS is $12.5 billion, which is an increase of 10.5 percent ($1.2 billion) in funding and 8.3 percent in staffing (6,998 FTEs) over fiscal year 2014, according to GAO-14-534R.
It said that the agency has absorbed about $900 million in budget cuts since fiscal 2010 through savings and efficiencies and by reducing, delaying, or eliminating services.
GAO said additional funding is not the only solution – a long-term plan to improve web services is also needed.
