PUBLISHED IN
Quotes from Mark W. Everson, Former IRS Commissioner; alliantgroup Vice Chairman
If you have any questions about this article, please send us a message.
The IRS is planning how it will use the $80 billion allocated to the agency under the Inflation Reduction Act — and how it will successfully recruit new employees
The Internal Revenue Service is planning a hiring spree for top-tier talent as it uses $80 billion to upgrade the tax agency’s systems and to scrutinize a greater number of the more complicated returns that are filed by corporations and wealthy taxpayers.
Now it has to convince people to come aboard at the IRS instead of taking potentially more lucrative work in the private sector.
And it has to make that recruiting pitch in the midst of an accountant shortage, and knowing that the prospect of working for the taxman in a politically charged moment may turn off some candidates.
On Friday — the same day the Labor Department showed the economy adding 236,000 jobs in March — observers said the IRS has a tough job ahead on staffing.
A day earlier, IRS and Treasury Department officials released a plan for spending the $80 billion allocated to the IRS over a decade under the Inflation Reduction Act. More than half the sum, $45.6 billion, is earmarked for tougher enforcement against wealthy taxpayers and corporations.
In the coming two years, the plan shows, the IRS wants to use some of the funding to add more than 7,000 people to its enforcement ranks and almost 6,500 additional staffers for taxpayer services. And the tax agency has been hiring quickly recently, including adding 5,000 customer-service agents.
The IRS said it now has 2,600 staffers dedicated to examining complex returns. Auditing a wealthy taxpayer’s return can take up to 250 hours, compared with the five-hour average review for simple returns, the Treasury Department said. And it can take between two and four years to complete an audit of a corporate tax return, the department noted.
“We will focus [Inflation Reduction Act] enforcement resources on hiring the accountants, attorneys, and data scientists needed to pursue high-income and high-wealth individuals, complex partnerships, and large corporations that are not paying the taxes they owe,” Danny Werfel, the IRS’s new commissioner, said in the spending plan’s opening letter.
“In rebuilding and sustaining our capacity and capabilities with discretionary and mandatory funding, we plan to focus on hiring and growing talent with the right skills to address the nation’s increasingly complex tax system,” he added.
The IRS told MarketWatch it is creating strategies to attract potential employees in a variety of ways. “That includes attracting individuals with public-service motivation; the opportunity to work on unique problems and challenges; flexible work arrangements; and a competitive total compensation package, including health and life insurance, retirement programs, and benefit programs such as childcare subsidy,” the IRS said in a statement.
“With the Strategic Operating Plan, the IRS will become competitive with the private sector in the hiring of young accountants, for example, by highlighting the opportunities for those accountants to work on very interesting work right out of school, as opposed to waiting for years as could be the case at an accounting firm,” the agency said.
Bringing on tax professionals with years of private-sector experience who are looking for a change “sounds easy — but it’s not, really,” said Mark Everson, who served as IRS commissioner from 2003 to 2007, during the George W. Bush administration.
About Mark Everson
The Honorable Mark W. Everson was the nation’s 46th Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service serving from 2003 until 2007. Prior to joining the IRS, Everson held Bush administration posts as Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget and Controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management. Everson also served in the Reagan administration, holding several positions at the United States Information Agency and the Department of Justice, where his assignments included Deputy Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. At the state level, Everson oversaw the Indiana Workforce and Unemployment Insurance Systems under Governor Mitch Daniels.
