The IRS doesn’t need more workers, it needs less work

Tax day is approaching, and a shorthanded Internal Revenue Service just got a $675 million boost (6 percent) from Congress and the president. But money won’t fix this problem. We can solve it–and maybe some other problems–with tax reform.

The IRS has its issues. Law professor Beverly Moran reported that last year, “taxpayers had trouble reaching the IRS, tax returns took months to process, almost a quarter of refunds didn’t go out until 2022, and collection notices were sent out even after the tax owed was paid,” and added that the IRS failed to answer 250 million phone calls. The Washington Post suggested that, “What the IRS really needs is a big investment to staff up and modernize its systems. Congress must treat this with the same degree of urgency as the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.”