Democrats are infuriated by Republican proposals to cut funding to the IRS and end funding for the agency’s new free online tax filing system.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee in a statement on Thursday called the GOP’s latest Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) budget bill “disastrous” and slammed Republicans for risking a new fight over spending that led to a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by major ratings agencies last year.
“Apparently, the Republican 2023-2024 spending debacle wasn’t enough for the conference… Just three months after Democrats took control again as the minority and staved off the worst of the GOP’s disruptions and cuts, Republicans have once again introduced a package of extreme and unworkable bills,” they wrote.
Republicans proposed Tuesday to cut the IRS enforcement budget by $2 billion, funding the agency at $10.1 billion in fiscal year 2025, $2.2 billion below 2024 levels.
Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee called the cuts “radical.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday that the bill would “protect taxpayers and curb red tape from unelected bureaucrats.”
Top Democratic appropriations official Steny Hoyer (Md.) expressed disappointment Wednesday over the IRS funding in the FSGG markup.
“We need to respond to President Biden’s request to fund the IRS for FY24, ideally providing additional funding beyond the request to offset recent budget cuts to the agency,” he said.
Another sticking point for Hoyer has been Republicans’ desire to eliminate Direct File, the IRS’s online tax filing program that was piloted in 12 states this year and recently made permanent by the Treasury Department.
“If the government is going to require Americans to pay their taxes, then we should also provide a free and easy way for them to do so. Frankly, if we want to make it easy to pay your taxes legally, I don’t understand why we don’t have that service,” he said.
The Treasury Department has vigorously defended the direct-file system, arguing that it fills a big need in the tax system: On average, Americans spend $270 and 13 hours filing their taxes, a Treasury official told The Hill on Tuesday, citing an IRS taxpayer burden study.
The IRS initially received an $80 billion funding boost in Democrats’ 2022 anti-inflation bill, to be spent over 10 years, before being shrunk by a quarter in the form of regular spending cuts over Republican opposition.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
