(TheRedWire.com) – On Monday, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that will reduce the funding received by the Internal Revenue Service by more than $70 billion. The cutting of funds is part of the Republican’s attempt to stop the IRS from performing audits on Americans. This is one of the first promises made by the Republican party that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will fulfill now that he has officially been voted in as Speaker.
The Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act from Reps. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Michelle Steel, R-Calif. is going to cut down billions of dollars that the IRS would have received under the Inflation Reduction Act which was passed in 2022.
While funding for the IRS will be cut, the bill does allow provisions for funding that would be used to better both the IT and customer services provided by the IRS. However, many other areas of funding, such as funding provided for audits would be completely stricken down.
The Inflation Reduction Act was set to provide the IRS with $80 billion in funding in the next decade. The predominant focus of these funds would be to find ways to reduce tax evasion. In 2021, the Treasury Department had estimated that with $80 billion in funding the IRS would be able to hire around 87,000 more auditors. However, Republicans are not in support of the expansion of the agency.
As Smith told Fox News Digital on Monday, Americans do not need to face more audits from the IRS. He added that the task of all the new IRS employees would be to “pay for Democrats’ Green New Deal priorities.” This he noted was “unacceptable.”
In support of the bill proposed he said that this bill would allow the necessary funding for improvements to take place, but would stop the IRS from auditing middle-class families who “cannot afford” to have such audits conducted.
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