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Washington, D.C. —On the heels of an inspector general report showing a need for additional staffing, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today offered strong support for the administration’s proposed fiscal 2012 investments in both the tax enforcement and taxpayer service efforts of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“We strongly believe that by investing in demonstrably effective enforcement and taxpayer service programs, the administration’s request will allow the IRS to provide taxpayers with top-quality service, enhance voluntary compliance, narrow the tax gap and reduce the deficit,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley told a Senate subcommittee in submitted testimony.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), was conducting a hearing on the proposed IRS fiscal 2012 budget. The White House has proposed $13.2 billion for the IRS in the coming fiscal year, an increase of nine percent over the $1.1 billion from the fiscal 2010 enacted level.

With regard to specific aspects of the proposal, President Kelley applauded the request for $2.3 billion for taxpayer services, an amount she said would allow the agency “to improve its telephone level of service, improve the IRS website and provide a variety of new online services.”

NTEU has long supported broad and effective taxpayer service as a critical component in helping close the gap between taxes owed and those paid, a gap currently at $345 billion a year.

In her testimony, the NTEU leader noted that in 2010, more than 6.4 million taxpayers visited the 401 IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) across the country, a three percent increase over the previous year. “Walk-in service at TACs remains popular among elderly taxpayers, those with limited English and computer proficiency, and taxpayers without internet access,” she said.

Moreover, she told the subcommittee, during the 2010 tax-filing season, the IRS expanded hours of service at 16 geographically-dispersed TACs, and opened seven facilities on Saturdays. At 17 locations, she said, low-income taxpayers were able to get help from IRS employees not only with their federal tax return, but their state return as well.

On the matter of enforcement, President Kelley supported the White House request for an additional $462 million, including an internal adjustment that would, among other steps, allow the agency to deepen and broaden its focus on international tax compliance of high net worth individuals and entities.

“The IRS has demonstrated that targeted compliance resources more than pay for themselves through increased revenue, which has motivated past Congresses to target additional funds for these enforcement activities,” she said.

Separately, a report earlier this week from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reviewing a hiring initiative by one of the agency’s major divisions, noted that under the program, the hiring of Revenue Officers, a key enforcement position, has not kept up with attrition. In that regard, President Kelley has pointed out a number of times that overall IRS staffing is down more than 20 percent from the early 1990s, despite significant growth in both numbers and complexity of tax returns.

The TIGTA report supported NTEU’s long-held position that appropriate personnel, both as to types of positions and absolute numbers, in both taxpayer compliance and customer service functions not only pays for itself, it generates substantial revenue for the government.

Meanwhile, President Kelley used her testimony to address two other important matters: the physical security of IRS workplaces; and the need for significant changes in federal contracting to increase the amount of contracted work brought back in-house.

She reminded the subcommittee of the suicide attack on an IRS facility in Austin, Texas, 16 months ago, which killed one employee and wounded a number of others. “NTEU is happy to see the administration has proposed $15 million to enhance physical security for IRS employees,” she said. That includes $10 million to expand guard service at the TACs during the filing season; $1.5 million to improve security at agency facilities around the country; and $3.9 million to help identify and investigate threats to the agency or its employees.

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.