Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson told
Senate lawmakers recently of the agency’s plan to close
the estimated $300 billion tax gap by stepping up enforcement.
He testified at an October 26 hearing before the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on
Federal Financial Management, Government Information and
International Security.
Everson said the President’s requested fiscal 2006 budget
of $10.679 billion–a 4.3 percent increase over 2005 that
has been fully funded by the Senate, with the House offering
slightly less–represents an 8 percent increase in
enforcement, but a 2 percent decrease in business systems
modernization, as well as a one percent decrease in taxpayer
service.
The formula for shifting resources from taxpayer assistance
to enforcement has drawn criticism from both employee unions
and some lawmakers.
Still, Everson did not specifically address the agency’s
recently enacted authority to hire private sector debt
collectors and allow them to pocket up to 25 percent of
what they can collect, or the agency’s stalled plan to
close nearly 25 percent of its taxpayer assistance centers.
Instead he focused on plans to increase audits of
corporations and high-income individuals as well as to
increase collection and criminal investigations.
He said that while the agency would seek to improve service
and respect to taxpayer rights, it would not “relax until
taxpayers who are unwilling to pay their fair share see that
it is not a worthwhile course to follow.”
