Moolenaar supports IRS Reduction Act to protect taxpayers from increase in audits

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) on Sept. 2 signed on as one of 22 GOP original cosponsors of legislation that would rescind the funds appropriated to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which President Joe Biden signed into law on Aug. 16.

“This new legislation I am supporting will stop the IRS from hiring 87,000 new employees to comb through the personal finances of the American people,” Rep. Moolenaar said on Tuesday.

The IRS Reduction Act, H.R. 8769, which is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ), would revoke unobligated balances of all amounts appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act to the IRS, according to the bill’s text. 

In September 2021, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that it had completed an analysis of the then-proposed item in President Joe Biden’s 2022 budget that would increase funding for the IRS.

According to the CBO report, the administration’s almost $80 billion in funding to the IRS would be available through the end of fiscal year 2031 and would provide two types of funding: discretionary appropriations, which would mainly be used for enforcement activities; and mandatory funding, which would be used for a variety of activities, such as enforcement, operations support, business-systems modernization, and taxpayer services, among others.

“By 2031, CBO projects, the proposal would make the IRS’s budget more than 90 percent larger than it is in CBO’s July 2021 baseline projections and would more than double the IRS’s staffing,” the report says. “Of the $80 billion, CBO estimates, about $60 billion would be for enforcement and related operations support.”

“Michigan families are hurting because of the recession caused by President Biden and now he is using their hard-earned money to turn around and target them with more IRS agents and audits,” said Rep. Moolenaar, whose office cited the CBO report in his statement.

Among the 21 other members who joined Rep. Moolenaar as an original cosponsor of H.R. 8769 were U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Don Bacon (R-NE), and Buddy Carter (R-GA).