Most of the expected hiring will be keep up with turnover, with employees added for customer service in addition to enforcement and other functions. Image: Andrew F. Kazmierski/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe IRS “faces the daunting task of protecting its employees and facilities” as threats and actual assaults against employees have recently “rapidly increased,” an inspector general report has said.
The IG said it “attributes this to the increased presence of IRS personnel returning to the office, as well as recent legislation that directly impacts the IRS. After passage of the IRA, threats directed at the IRS and its employees increased. As a result, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue announced efforts to perform a comprehensive review of existing IRS safety and security measures. Threats and assaults directed at IRS employees, facilities, and infrastructure impede the effective and safe administration of the federal tax system and the IRS’s ability to collect tax revenue,” it said.
The legislation it referenced was the Inflation Reduction Act ,which provided $79 billion above assumed baseline levels over the next 10 years and that has led to false assertions—including by some members of Congress and candidates—that the result will be a doubling of the agency’s workforce of some 87,000 with large numbers of them armed law enforcement agents. While the IRS does have some armed agents, they are only a small percentage of the workforce and most of the expected hiring will be keep up with turnover, with employees added for customer service in addition to enforcement and other functions.
The IG report meanwhile cautioned that the hiring will be difficult to achieve, calling human capital “a serious, underlying issue with wide-ranging implications for both the IRS and taxpayers. At a time when the IRS is taking on new challenges, such as implementation of the IRA, the recruitment of new employees and retention of existing employees are critical to ensuring the maintenance of a quality workforce capable of meeting the needs of the American public.”
It added: “Significant staffing shortages have hampered the IRS’s efforts to address the backlog inventories and provide the level of customer service expected by taxpayers. Demand for IRS toll-free telephone assistance has increased each year since November 2018, which directly correlates with the increase in tax law changes in recent years, including the tax law changes related to the pandemic.”
The observations were part of a report on the agency’s key management challenges, which included other longstanding issues at the agency including protecting taxpayer data and agency IT; modernizing operations; administering tax law changes; increasing enforcement; and reducing fraud and improper payments.
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