The IRS has long struggled to compete with the private sector for talent. Image: Rob Crandall/Shutterstock.com
A report for Congress sees difficulties ahead for the IRS in addressing what it called the agency’s “critical ongoing need” for an adequate number of employees with relevant knowledge and skills.
The Congressional Research Service said that increased staffing is prominent among initiatives in the strategic plan the IRS recently issued for using additional funding approved last year. The recently enacted debt ceiling law rescinded a quarter of the $80 billion that had been approved for a 10-year period, although administration officials have said that will not necessarily affect short-term planning.
The CRS report said that over 2010-2022, IRS employment fell by some 10,000, or about a tenth, with steeper losses in components such as examinations and collections, which fell by about a third. The agency meanwhile expects to lose some 8,000 employees per year due to retirement and other reasons.
The strategic plan did not set specific hiring targets, the report noted, but instead “sets forth ways in which the IRS might meet its anticipated workforce requirements in the next few years. The plan calls for offering higher pay for individuals with knowledge and skills in great demand; recruiting from diverse and underrepresented talent pools; and streamlining a time-consuming hiring process that can dissuade candidates from joining the IRS.”
However, it cautions that “Recent IRS hiring efforts suggest that hiring and retaining enough individuals with the requisite skills and knowledge may be difficult. The IRS has long struggled to compete with the private sector for talented individuals, especially tax auditors and certain IT specialists,” it says.
The IRS is agency is seeking streamlined authority in its fiscal year 2024 budget request to offer higher salaries to persons with critical skills that are in short supply, it added.
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