Mixed news for IRS on its budget: It will get $320 million for the new tax law. We’ve said before that IRS has a big job ahead to implement all of the changes in the legislation. The Service will use the funds to reprogram its computer systems, update hundreds of forms and publications, educate taxpayers on the new provisions, and issue guidance in the form of regulations, notices, announcements and FAQs. The agency will also see more money for taxpayer services in its 2018 budget. But funding for its enforcement activities will remain the same as last year.
Years of steep IRS budget cuts have hit the agency’s workforce hard. Inadequate employee training is a particularly serious problem for the Service, according to Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate. IRS spent $489 per employee on training in 2017, compared with $1,450 in 2009. Wage and Investment workers… the employees who staff IRS’s toll-free telephone lines and its assistance centers… got $87 a pop in training resources last year. In-person classroom instruction is rare. Most training is done virtually on computers, although this differs by divisions. Taxpayers and practitioners who call the agency want a timely and correct answer. Having untrained employees erodes the expectation of quality service, Olson says.