IRS 2023 Budget and 2022 Filing Season

Finance, The IRS, the President's Fiscal Year 2023 Budget, and the 2022 Filing Season, April 7, 2022

WM, Oversight: IRS Commissioner Rettig on the 2022 Filing Season, March 17, 2022

Feel free to pass along our Tax Reform plan to the witness so that you may ask him for comments (especially regarding using a subtraction VAT to distribute the Child Tax Credit to workers and their families).

Let me also reiterate my concerns with Mr. Rettig’s involvement with the obstruction of the transfer of Mr. Trump’s tax returns to the Committee. These issues are still before us, as far as I am concerned.

Finance: Spotlighting IRS Customer Service Challenges, February 17, 2022

WM, Oversight: National Taxpayer Advocate on Challenges Facing Taxpayers, February 8, 2022

I urge you to submit a written question (or one during the hearing) about the advisability of using support contractors - both for the hotline and for audit services. There are many qualified revenue agents working in the private sector who are up to this task, as well as top flight federal customer service providers to handle simple questions and arrange follow-up calls with revenue agents. 

We are sure you already have questions on how Build Back Better can help the IRS meet these challenges as well. This is especially true regarding the suspension of payments refundable child tax credits to parents. Hopefully she will not have to handle inquiries for long from distressed families.

The Child Tax Credit should be the focus of BBB, as well as childcare and sick leave. While other matters are certainly important, they realistically will have to wait for a larger Senate majority. In the interim, it should be shouted from the housetops that the CTC is anti-abortion legislation. The Catholic Bishops must be urged in the strongest possible language to assure that increasing the CTC be scored as a must-pass pro-life vote.

As we have said before, to end the “stink of welfare” that Senator Manchin so objects to, CTC payments should be included with wages for all employees - not just those with three or more children. They should also be distributed through other federal and state assistance programs - some of which can be reduced to do so.

For middle income taxpayers whose increased credits are less than their annual tax obligation, a simple change in withholding tables is adequate. Procedures are already in place to deliver refundable credits to larger families. For the coming year, they merely need to be expanded to all families with children. 

Employers can work with their bankers to increase funds for payroll throughout the year while requiring less money for their quarterly tax payments (or estimated taxes) to the IRS. The main issue is working out those situations where employers owe less than they pay out. This is especially true for labor intensive industries and even more so for low wage employers. 

A higher minimum wage would make negative quarterly tax bills less likely. Indeed, no one should have to subsist mainly on their child tax payments.

Please ask, either orally or in written form, how such a CTC proposal might work and how it would make things easier for taxpayers whose returns would be simpler - with fewer having to file at all.

We have attached the latest version of our tax reform plan, with a separate attachment on how implementation of this plan would affect IRS manpower. The answer is that the change would be drastic. It would also allow the Committee to focus more on how social welfare is being delivered in general, as well as eliminating current roadblocks to promptly filing for Social Security Disability Income.

Attachment: Tax Reform

Attachment: Tax Administration