IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

As is the custom, Congress and the Biden administration used the passage of the hilariously-named Inflation Reduction Act to tack on all kinds of additional pork totaling about $740 billion in newly printed dollars. That’s the bill that West Virginia’s credulous Senator Joe Manchin rolled over for, buying Chuck Schumer’s and Biden’s all-too-predictably bogus promises of future consideration to “support and expand fossil energy” to sign on. Manchin’s rube-like credulousness is still a source of amazement.

Anyway, along with the tax increases and drug price controls (with strangely little in the way of inflation-fighting provisions) the Inflation Reduction Act contained an $80 billion budget bump for our friends at the Internal Revenue Service.

Eighty billion is a lot of money even in terms of government spending. Hearing about all that extra cash in the hands of the revenuers didn’t give Americans a warm, fuzzy feeling. Videos like this one didn’t help matters much.

This week, however, IRS top dawg Danny Werfel sought to dispel rumors that the agency is planning to use a good chunk of all that additional cash to hire and train a horde of newly armed agents.

As the AP reported . . .

Since President Joe Biden signed the measure, known as the “ the Inflation Reduction Act, ” in August, some Republicans have claimed the IRS would use the new money to hire an army of 87,000 tax agents with weapons.

That claim comes from a plan the Treasury Department proposed in 2021 to bring on that many IRS employees over the next decade if it got the money. 

But don’t worry, Mr. and Mrs. America, Commissioner Werfel says they won’t be hiring a new division of gun-totin’ auditors. Instead, they’re going to spend a lot of those dollars on what the IRS has always been best known for…its customer service.

During the call with reporters, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the plan “is heavily driven by the fact that we need to make technology investments that will improve productivity, which will mean that over time the number of employees and the mix of employees at the IRS will change.”

After Congress passed the legislation last summer, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed the IRS to develop a plan outlining how the tax agency would overhaul its technology, customer service and hiring processes. Her memo sent instructions to IRS leadership not to increase audit rates on people making less than $400,000 a year annually.

Whew…that’s a relief. No extra additional armed auditors. They’ll only be going after “the rich,” improving the agency’s technology, productivity, and customer service. Who could argue with that?

And only 7,239 of the first 20,000 they’re hiring — 36% — will be “enforcement staff.”

Getting iron-clad promises like that from people like Janet Yellen and Danny Werfel has to make you feel better, right?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

47 COMMENTS

  1. yeah right
    we believe the irs
    just as much as we believe the fbi
    that is to say
    not at all

    • Are you looking for a job of your choice??? Can’t find the job you want even after visiting different websites? Considering your needs, we have organized our website with all categories of jobs, visit this link now….. https://salarycash710.blogspot.com

    • there was a time when a “kinder gentlier” IRS was in vogue…I worked at least one field detail…but that all came to an end awhile ago…when that happened many retired because of the increased workload….then they became very difficult to reach let alone get assistance from…they do have some agents authorized to be armed…but they rarely are

  2. Oh good… another government promise. Ask the native how that worked out, and literally every treaty since then too…

  3. I for one welcome our IRS overlords. Their benevolent behavior is legendary🤪😀🙃… Do they use their real names when in interrogation mode???

    • they’re real people with real concerns…just like anyone else…they did me some favors, but it helps to be an insider….

    • Johnny,

      True, but the real fun lies in the fact that, with their salaries and benefits, THEY are the very people they are targeting (and lying about targeting). Cognitive dissonance, thy name is “Progressive”. Like the Red Queen, the ability to believe seven impossible things before breakfast is a requirement to be a “Progressive”.

  5. Ah, the Treasury Department. The agency everyone loves to hate. I mean really. Who likes to give the government money? And believe me, everytime you give the government your money, it’s a tax. City, county, state federal. No matter how they couch it. License, tag, permit, sometimes they’re even honest and call it a tax. Of course, there’s a flip side. I remember traveling US Hwy 90 from Florida to Colorado as a child. Well, we turned North in New Mexico. Interstates are more efficient. Boring, but efficient. I like electricity and flushing the toilet. I like to think if I dial 911 a fire truck and an ambulance will arrive. What pisses me off is the government giving my money to some asswipe that never hit a lick at a snake in his life.

    • Gadsden,

      I often respond to government proposals for IT services. These proposals regularly go out at 2x what we would charge a commercial client. Why? Because government red tape makes working for the government far more expensive than in the private sector. What happens to those expensive bids? We win our share because at 2x the commercial rate we are often the low bidder.

      • We occasionally perform repairs for folks on public assistance, that are paid for by county or state relief agencies. Yeah, welfare jobs. The vehicles are usually worth only scrap value, and we will do a couple grand worth of work to make them “road safe.” Think of things like a 1996 Saturn SL2 with 250k miles, and you get my drift. The first couple ones, we turned down because we didn’t feel good about spending that much tax money on junk. However, something one of the agency counselors told me, after I expressed my concern, caused us to rethink it. He said in effect, look, I understand how you feel. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I know that most of this is a waste. However, it’s my job to get this lady’s car fixed. It’s obviously a POS that will not be worth what we’re spending. You seem like an honest shop. If you don’t take this one, XYZ down the road will get it, and you know he’ll find “other stuff” that it “needs” and milk it for all he can get. So, let me send a check to you, instead of a bigger check to XYZ.

        So, now we do some of them with the hope that we’re ripping ourselves off less (as taxpayers) than what XYZ would do. It’s a crappy world.

    • like any govt. agency, they’re dependent on funding…and tend to do as they’re told….

    • Have never heard of them but thanks to your link, I am taking a look now. On the surface, looks bogus to me but…I certainly don’t know everything. The founder, “Peymon Mottahedeh,” of the school (free courses sent to you once you sign up) says this on his “About” page:

      Founder and President of Freedom Law School, Peymon Mottahedeh, was born in a Jewish family in Iran. From age 6 to 14 Peymon learned from his father about politics of East v. West (American V. Soviet Union), Arab Israeli Conflict, Iranian politics, where the Shah (Kings’) secret service could arrest and detain anyone indefinitely, torture them, sentence them with summary trials, or no trials. Peymon then immigrated to the USA in 1977 at the age of 14, hoping to come to the land of the free, home, of the brave. He unfortunately found that the United States was anything BUT acting on their freedoms!

      In University, Peymon took classes on economics, finance and ended up with a Business/Marketing degree because he wanted to know how the world of business and money works. In his first economics class he realized that the Federal Reserve system is an owned scam that makes money out of thin air. During and after his university years from 1983 -1990 Peymon marketed home mortgage loans (for 6 months) and was a financial planner for 7 years.
      ‍
      Peymon realized he was a libertarian, and in 1989, when he became a US Citizen, he became a registered and active member of the Libertarian party. In 1992 he discovered that the Income Tax system is a giant scam and learned from patriots about the New World Order Conspiracy, and the fraudulent privately owned Federal Reserve Banking System. Have not filed any 1040 income tax returns or paid any federal income or payroll taxes since 1992.

      Peymon is passionate about educating and assisting Americans in fighting for their rights, freedom, and how to live free once again, especially of IRS robbery and lies.

      • TrueDiciple,

        I have read a few cases where folk using the 16th Amendment argument have ended up in prison for tax evasion. Freedom Law School guarantees to defend you if you follow their guidance and pay your dues. I have read of people using their system who are still free even though they have not paid Federal income taxes for as long as 9 years. That behing said, Freedom Law School will not reveal the secret sauce until you pay your dues. For me, dues would be $9k annually. Seems steep, but if your income tax bill is $36k per year, those dues could be worth it. Still, I am hesitant to believe… and I fully appreciate that the Feds consider it business-as-usual to fabricate charges, try, convict, and sentence simply because they can.

        • Yeah, they may those who pay their dues but you’d still have to go through the beyond stressful process of defending against a government with unlimited pockets. I’ll stick with my approach of flying off the radar and interacting with them only at the bare minimum required level.

          I love studying constitutional law and from a cursory study of what material he will put out there, I personally believe he’s in the right.

          It’s not a public stand I can make though. As the only Bible preaching pastor in my area, my reputation would be ruined and my effectiveness and witness would be gone. Sacrifices sacrifices.

        • remember when the “T-men”…[pre-ATF]…used to run around trying to collect unpaid taxes…primarily on booze and tobacco?

  7. If this is true why didn’t they say this two years ago?
    Instead they fire up everybody with an expensive bill seemingly no one understands. Genius

  8. They probably don’t need armed agents to go after all those waitresses who haven’t been reporting their $400,000 in cash tips.

    • Yeah, remember FJB telling us no one making under $400K would have his taxes increased? …. as they have venmo, paypal, etc required to report everything cumulatively over $ 600 and targeting tip income for those evidently millionaire waitresses? They dont need armed agents to steal from us, they get it up front.

      • How do people not notice the massive wealth transfer to the upper class every time the government says they’re going to fix a crisis? The Dim voters always fall for the class warfare lie. They need to get it through their thick skulls that the rich will always get richer, no matter what. Therefore, the focus needs to be on not letting the lower and middle classes get poorer. Inflation is a tax on everyone. It doesn’t really have a negative impact on the rich. The Puppet & Company have already taxed everyone making less than $400k with their insane economic policies.

  10. From the looks of the candidates, we saw on video during their training, they wouldn’t last 5 minutes with a ticked off public that decided to show them the door. So they will just spend the 80 million to hire the same people to harass you and check what party you belong to so they can discriminate between conservatives and the radical left.

  11. 87 thousand new IRS agents is 1740 per state, Right, they will only investigate rich people making over $400 thousand per year. I live in the real world. with Savings being 10% les in the last 2 years, better to buy tangible assets and sell it later at the inflated price. Just my 23 cents worth (adjusted for inflation.)

  12. We know they can be trusted because there’s never been any evidence of government lying to the people, backtracking statements, obfuscating operations or playing sophomoric semantic games. Never.

    • The border is secure. We’ve been to the border. *cackle* Inflation is uh… transitory. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

  13. I find it rather strange that an arm of the Govt. with the power to throw you in jail would refer to us as their “customers”.

  14. White man speaks in double tongues.
    As long as the grass is green and the sky is blue, then they plowed up the prairie and turned the sky grey with pollution.

  15. The rich can afford lawyers and accountants so that they legally pay as little taxes as they can. There aren’t many of them, they aren’t cheating, and usually aren’t making mistakes, so there’s very little money to recover there. If the government wants more from them, they need to change the tax codes to allow fewer deductions and qualified expenses.

    The poor are half the country and don’t pay any taxes, so there’s no extra money there either.

    That leaves getting a few thousand here and there from the middle class that can’t afford to hire a team Iof experts who know all the rules, so they make mistakes because they don’t understand everything.

    The only other significant source is the underground economy. It’s stupid to go after criminals with unarmed agents, which means they’re headed for the ordinary middle class workers.

    • very telling comment…but good luck on getting congress to change the tax codes in any meaningful way…

  18. No new agents, huh? Add that whopper to the three greatest lies ever told.

  19. ” We’re from the Government. We’re here to help you.”
    Ask our native friends or anyone who has been on the receiving end of an IRS audit or been hit with a tax lean about being able to trust anything any government agent or official has to say. Even Al Capone was brought down by the IRS and not the FBI or BATF/Prohibition agents.

  20. but the IRS left out …” the checks in the mail and I promise I won’t ….”….well …you know.

  21. Remember: “I am here from the government to help you”. If anyone in government told me the sky is blue, I would go outside and check for myself because they lie to it’s citizens daily.
    In the above quote, one world should be replaced with “F%#K” to make it an accurate statement.

  22. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the plan “is heavily driven by the fact that we need to make technology investments that will improve productivity,

    Sweet summer child, you actually think you’re producing something?

  23. A flat/fair tax or consumption tax would make the IRS unnecessary. Government never accepts a course of action that would reduce its size.

  24. Since income tax was supposed to be temporary…………here we are. Should we trust government with ANYTHING?????

  25. Not gonna need guns. When our currency is completely digitized, the Fed will be able to simply shut you down, making you personally unable to buy or sell anything. And not just for tax evasion, either. They’ll be able to approve or deny any sale or purchase based on whether it meets the governments approval. China’s a little ahead of us in this, but we’re catching up fast. The only thing that won’t be tracked will be bartering. That’s when the real value of ammunition will be as bartered currency, not as stockpiles for defense.

  26. Expect to see a question on future tax forms asking if you own any firearms. There will be a ‘special use’ tax levied on them to the point where no one will be able to afford to keep them. The crypto currency rules will ban purchase of any firearm or ammo. They will regulate the Second Amendment out of existence….until the Second Civil War starts.

Comments are closed.