Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) strongly supports a call by the public-private Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board for additional resources designed to help the IRS bolster its tax law enforcement and collection efforts, the leader of the union said today.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the recommendations of the nine-member Oversight Board, contained in a report made public today, “offer a detailed and well-supported analysis” of the benefits to the nation of providing the agency with additional resources.

Additional enforcement personnel, the Board said, would enhance the agency’s ability to address delinquent tax cases, increase the number of audits that can be performed, close additional cases involving high-income taxpayers and tax shelter promoters, and facilitate contact with a large group of taxpayers who either fail to file tax returns or do not pay the taxes due.

The administration’s budget for fiscal 2005 proposes a 4.6 percent increase in IRS funding, but the Oversight Board is recommending a 10 percent increase from fiscal 2004, to $11.2 billion. The Board said its budget, if enacted, would increase revenue by about $5 billion a year, once the IRS has hired and trained additional enforcement personnel.

The Oversight Board, established in the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA), has a broad mandate, including addressing the long-term budget and strategic planning needs of the agency.

President Kelley noted that while both the Treasury Department and the IRS have expressed their determination to expand tax enforcement efforts—among other reasons, as a means of encouraging increased voluntary compliance with the nation’s tax laws—the administration has failed year after year to provide the funds necessary.

Just this month, a top Treasury official told the Senate Finance Committee the IRS lacked the resources to try to collect from some two million delinquent taxpayers last year, with accounts totaling nearly $16.5 billion.

“Everyone understands that investing resources in the IRS and its employees pays huge dividends for Treasury and the country in terms of increased tax collections,” Kelley said. “This report by the Oversight Board helps bring that into sharp focus. I hope it spurs Congress and the administration to take the proper action by increasing the IRS budget.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments, including about 98,000 in the IRS.