Report: IRS workload cripples agency

[pwaldo]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71329.html

A sharp increase in the IRS’s workload is causing a slew of problems for the agency, including delays in refunds to taxpayers and failure to identify fraudulent tax claims, a new report to Congress out Wednesday warns.

“The overriding challenge facing the IRS is that its workload has grown significantly in recent years, while its funding is being cut,” Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, said in her annual report to lawmakers. “This is causing the IRS to resort to shortcuts that undermine fundamental taxpayer rights and harm taxpayers — and at the same time reduces the IRS’s ability to deliver on its core mission of raising revenue.”

According to the newly released data, there were some 4,430 changes to the tax code from 2001 through 2010 — coming out to an average of more than one change per day — every one of which the IRS must explain to taxpayers and write new computer codes for.

Also adding to the IRS’s burden is an increase in illegal activity stemming from bogus tax refund claims — 2011 saw a 20 percent increase compared with the year before — partly attributable to an expansion of refundable credit in recent years, the report said.

[pghin08]

That's our lovely tax code! Wooo!

[habsheaven]

Shouldn't their "core mission" be to enforce the tax code, not raise revenue?

[pghin08]

Shouldn't their "core mission" be to enforce the tax code, not raise revenue?

You would think.

[AUTaxMan]

Shouldn't their "core mission" be to enforce the tax code, not raise revenue?

It should be, but it ain't, just like the Alabama Department of Revenue. I fight against both on a routine basis.