(PresidentialHill.com)- As the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is preparing for a drastic increase in funding and hiring, the agency is calling for some help from both inside and outside the government, according to the Government Executive. The IRS has reportedly signed two contracts to facilitate these changes in the years to come.
The first contract will deal with recruitment, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. This will include posting job announcements looking at qualified candidates. The second contract will deal with background investigations reportedly similar to the agency’s personnel security employees, the outlet reports.
After the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a $740 billion package for tax reform, healthcare, and climate programs, the IRS is preparing to inherit $80 billion by 2031 which will go toward 87,000 new agents and other enforcement-related funds, according to American Pigeon.
The changes aim to make the federal tax-collecting agency more efficient. As part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the agency is beginning to target lower-income Americans’ transactions by reducing the third-party payment threshold from $20,000 to $600.
However, the IRS has recently delayed this new law, according to Forbes.
Nearly 600,000 candidates applied to the IRS in 2022, but after heavy filtering, the agency reportedly made “tentative offers” to only 46,000. Just 3% of that total went on to accept positions. The hiring process for the IRS is facing another obstacle as the original provision within the Inflation Reduction Act, which gave the agency direct hiring authority, was stripped by Congress.
As a way to go around lawmakers, the IRS tapped into the Office of Personnel Management to request the authority to hire. But National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins has come out against it, saying that the quick process could have adverse effects in the short term.
“Staff increases come with growing pains,” Collins said.
