The White House has proposed in its 2011 budget submission a one-year extension of the current moratorium on the IRS’s private debt collection program, for which statutory authority remains on the books even though the program was cancelled.
The National Treasury Employees Union, an outspoken opponent of the program, praised the proposal and also expressed support for increased funding for both IRS taxpayer enforcement and assistance.
The White House has proposed a $487 million increase in IRS funding in fiscal 2011, a 4 percent increase over this year’s $12.6 billion budget.
NTEU president Colleen Kelley told a House appropriations panel recently that the administration’s request that $2.3 billion be devoted to taxpayer services in the next fiscal year, including $20 million in additional funding for enhanced telephone service and a $293 million increase for enforcement programs would go a long way to closing the tax gap and building the workforce after having lost thousands of employees since the mid 1990s.
IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman told the subcommittee that the budget would increase service levels both by adding more resources and making efficiency improvements such as automated self-service applications that allow taxpayers to obtain information on less complex issues, such as refund inquiries.
That would free up staff to deal with more complex issues related to, for example, the Recovery Act and the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, he said.
Shulman also said new enforcement personnel funded through a program integrity allocation adjustment in White House request would generate nearly $2 billion in additional annual enforcement revenue once the new hires reach full potential in fiscal 2013.
