As we get close to tax day in the U.S. (April 15), many Americans have the Internal Revenue Service on their minds, whether it’s because they’re hoping for a refund or because they’re dreading the taxes that they have to send in with their return (or the hassle of audits).
Even if you’re expecting a refund, though, most people are not fans of thinking about dealing with taxes and with the government’s tax enforcement organizations. After all, it’s one more thing to keep at the back of your mind in our busy, overly complicated lives.
The Biden administration, though, seems to think that it’s their duty to make our lives even more complicated and stressful. They did, after all, increase IRS funding to hire more people to make sure that you and I properly file our “voluntary” tax returns.
And to make matters worse, a number of those new IRS employees are going to be carrying guns.
But don’t worry, the Biden administration says, because only some will carry guns. Tom Ozimek writes,
A watchdog overseeing the IRS has revealed that the agency is hiring 5,582 tax enforcers this year, although it dismissed as “unfounded” media reports claiming the tax agency is hiring “87,000-armed enforcement agents” because only a fraction of the new hires will carry guns.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which is the watchdog overseeing the IRS, disclosed the agency’s hiring plans for 2024 in an April 3 report on how the IRS is spending its $78 billion funding boost.
The IRS got roughly $79.4 billion in supplemental funding when President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law, though Congress later clawed back around $1.4 billion.
Still, even with the clawback, the massive cash infusion represented a roughly 600-percent increase over the IRS’ prior year budget.
Just a 600% budget increase while Americans were struggling financially through the epidemic. But they’re looking out for us, right?
Ozimek continues:
The smallest number of new hires is armed special agents in the criminal division. The IRS plans to hire 402 of them this year, bringing the total by the end of the current fiscal year to 2,500.
Well, that makes me feel better. Just a 16% increase in gun toting IRS agents. Assuming that the number toting guns doesn’t spread to other divisions in the agency.
And do you really believe that will be the case?
You can call me cynical, but I don’t.