In the News

Dozens of House Democrats are supporting a new effort to replenish billions in pared-back IRS modernization funding, which they say is necessary to enforce tax law and help taxpayers.

“For too long, wealthy individuals and large corporations have gotten away with not paying their fair share of taxes,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the bill’s lead author. “This bill restores the necessary funding so the agency can ensure that the tax code is enforced fairly and ensure wealthy tax evaders pay their fair share.”

The push to restore roughly $83 billion that’s largely been clawed back since Democrats set aside a similar pot of money in their 2022 tax-and-climate law indicates the party still sees the agency as integral to its tax-the-rich ambitions. The legislation has nearly 40 cosponsors, according to DelBene’s office, which shared a draft of the new legislation ahead of its release with Bloomberg Tax.

The beleaguered agency has been a target of deep workforce cuts and has seen major upheaval among senior staff since Trump’s second administration. After several years of improvement in taxpayer services and reductions to call wait times during filing season, wait times rose this year.

The House legislation, which follows an earlier Senate proposal, would seek to provide the agency with funding to modernize its much-maligned technology infrastructure, improve taxpayer services, and boost its enforcement apparatus.

Increased IRS spending — $45.6 billion for enforcement, $25.4 billion for technology modernization, $9.6 billion for taxpayer services improvements and $3.1 billion for business systems enhancements — would generate an estimated $998 billion, according to a Yale Budget Lab study Democrats cited in the release.