What $80 Billion More for the IRS Means for Your Taxes

The last Tax Report came out just as Congress took up the Inflation Reduction Act, and it discussed the bill’s $80 billion in proposed new Internal Revenue Service funding. Over half the new dollars were earmarked for new tax enforcement, especially audits of high-earning taxpayers, while the rest was to improve operations, technology and taxpayer service.

Now the bill is law, signed by President Biden on Aug. 16. Although details changed, the IRS’s $80 billion in new funding survived and is in place to be spent over a decade. Supporters of the law, who have long complained that IRS appropriations have been too erratic to fix fundamental problems like 1960s-era technology, are pleased with the stable funding.