Rounds to Leader Schumer: Take Up Legislation to Stop Hiring of 87,000 New IRS Agents

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urging the leader to schedule a vote on the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, H.R. 23. This legislation, which passed the House of Representatives on January 9, 2023, would return over $71 billion to American taxpayers over a ten-year period and would provide immediate relief from costly IRS audits to everyday American families who are already constrained by record inflation. 

“The IRS should not employ more than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI and the Border Patrol all combined,” said Rounds. “The IRS needs to work for the American people, not against them. That starts with reform, not with throwing money at an out-of-control government agency. I urge you to immediately bring H.R. 23 to the Senate floor for consideration in order to prevent the further emboldening of the IRS to go after small businesses and law-abiding Americans.”

Read the full text of the letter HERE or below.

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Leader Schumer:

I urge you to immediately bring up H.R. 23, the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, for consideration by the Senate. This legislation, which passed the House on January 9, 2023, would return over $71 billion to American taxpayers over a ten-year period and would provide immediate relief from costly audits to everyday American families who are already constrained by record inflation.

On August 19, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which included nearly $80 billion in funding for the IRS over a 10-year period, over $45 billion of which is to be used for enforcement and hiring new agents. According to the Department of Treasury, this level of resources would allow for the hiring of 86,852 full-time employees.

Supporters of The Inflation Reduction Act attempted to justify this massive increase by claiming it would allow the IRS to identify and investigate tax fraud and would lead to increased tax revenue from exclusively wealthy individuals by promising not to target any family making less than $400,000. However, according to the House Ways and Means Committee, of the 1.2 million new audits per year, over 700,000 would fall on taxpayers making $75,000 or less. This revenue collected from working-class Americans would not be used to offset our nation’s $31 trillion debt, but instead to offset new spending priorities that expand the size of the federal government. 

The IRS should not employ more than the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI and the Border Patrol all combined. The IRS needs to work for the American people, not against them. That starts with reform, not with throwing money at an out-of-control government agency. I urge you to immediately bring H.R. 23 to the Senate floor for consideration in order to prevent the further emboldening of the IRS to go after small businesses and law-abiding Americans.

Sincerely,

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