IRS Commissioner Chick Rettig, whose term is ending at the close of this year, unveiled a new five year improvement plan for the Internal Revenue Service. The plan included…
1- Providing quality and accessible services to enhance the taxpayer experience.
2 – Enforcing the tax laws fairly and efficiently to increase voluntary compliance and narrow the tax gap.
3 – Fostering an inclusive, diverse, and well-equipped workforce.
Transforming IRS operations to become more resilient, agile, and responsive.
4 – From the standpoint of enforcement, the IRS has been hurt by an expanding workload and dwindling resources.
Recent legislation signed into law by the new administration included the resources and intent to hire and train 10,000 new IRS employees. Most of these hires would be placed into enforcement actions.
The IRS also plans on establishing forecasting methods that enhance future tax gap estimates and initiate research on additional factors contributing to the tax gap. Further they plan to use “advanced technologies” to analyze and identify patterns of noncompliance.
Citing its increasing focus on non-compliant taxpayers, high-income and high-wealth taxpayers, as well as business partnerships and large corporations, the agency plans to increase audit coverage. Agents will also turn to blockchain tracing and virtual currency analytics for virtual currency investigations.
Let me leave you with this.
We’ve all seen these pronouncements before. This one came during the congressional hearings where the IRS is being taken to task for the forensic audits of James Comey and Andrew McCabe.
They probably won’t get all of this done. But even if they only get half of this accomplished in the next five years, none of us will recognize the new Internal Revenue Service.
They certainly have the funding in place given the new legislation. If there’s one thing I know about bureaucrats, they love spending money.
If they don’t, they know they won’t get that same budget the following year. And since they have to spend it on specific requirements, they’ll certainly accomplish a portion of their goals.
What I’m trying to tell you is that they’re coming and you need to be ready.
If you’re not behind on any of your tax returns, and those returns have been filed in a professional and auditable manner, then you have nothing to fear. There would be no reason for any agent to knock on your door.
If you haven’t filed, or your returns weren’t done correctly, well… Please realize that just because the Service hasn’t been heavily auditing returns in recent years doesn’t mean they won’t ramp up again.
I haven’t had one of my returns audited at the Federal Level in 12 years. Why? Because they were done correctly. If you’d like to have that same peace of mind, then we’d love to hear from you.
*Words from our exceptional leadership
