(C) Common Dreams
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Funding Bill Freezes $20 Billion of IRS Enforcement Cash [1]

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Date: 2024-12

Roughly $20 billion of IRS enforcement money remains frozen in draft legislation to fund the government released Tuesday by congressional appropriators.

The so-called continuing resolution, expected to advance through Congress this week, aims to avert an end-of-week government shutdown by extending funding through March 14. Republicans inserted the freeze on IRS modernization funding in an earlier continuing resolution, and Democrats were unsuccessful in cutting it out.

The rider effectively puts a temporary hold through the duration of the continuing resolution on roughly $20 billion of the enforcement funds the IRS got in the Democrats’ 2022 tax-and-climate law.

That law initially allocated about $80 billion for the agency to beef up technology, customer service, and enforcement after decades of lagging appropriations. Republicans have already clawed back more than $20 billion and are eyeing more cuts when the party takes full control of Washington in less than a month.

House Appropriations subcommittee ranking member Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned in a statement before the bill’s release that the clawback will force the agency to “roll back its progress to modernize, improve service, and enforce our tax laws.”

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, who President-elect Donald Trump has proposed to replace with former Missouri GOP Rep. Billy Long, warned the move would be destabilizing to the agency.

On a recent call with reporters, Werfel said the cuts would “be critically damaging to our capacity to do the work we need to do to make sure that large corporations and complex partnerships are paying what they owe.”

Trump’s pick to lead the IRS in his first term, Charles Rettig, also said it would be a mistake if Republicans continued clawing back funding.

The continuing resolution doesn’t change the IRS annual appropriations, which were set at $12.3 billion.

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[1] Url: https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/20-billion-in-irs-enforcement-cash-stays-frozen-in-funding-bill

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