“This concept of ‘Do more with less’ doesn’t really work,” a recent public statement by IRS civil enforcement chief Jarod Koopman, who also leads criminal investigations.
“They have defunded the police.” – a tax lawyer quoted in WSJ coverage today of recent GOP actions with IRS. The IRS workforce reductions so far would cut an estimated $46 billion in federal spending over the next decade and reduce revenue collections by $643 billion. The tax gap, the total amount of uncollected tax or total tax cheating, is now approaching $1 Trillion per year.
The coverage cites Trump’s complaints about his own audits for tax cheating and his pattern of pardoning wealthy tax cheaters.
These changes at IRS are affecting taxpayer behavior and also the strategies and procedures that we follow when representing clients who face aggressive IRS collections. One pattern that emerged is that it makes sense to challenge automated collections, although the process of settling tax debt cases takes longer and requires more work than in the past.
If you are facing IRS collections, it makes more sense than ever before to schedule an analysis and strategy session to reduce and settle the case.
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