IRS Chief Nominee Promises Not To Increase Audit Rates On Lower Class

IRS chief nominee Daniel Werfel insisted the IRS won't be increasing the audit rate on those making under $400,000 in response to a harsh line of questioning from Senate . 
Werfel insisted that regaining taxpayers' trust and improving customer service would be top priorities, at a time when critics are concerned the agency could use its new $80 billion cash infusion to audit middle- and low-income people. 
'If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, the audit and compliance priorities will be focused on enhancing IRS' capabilities to ensure that America's highest earners comply with applicable tax law,' Werfel said before the Finance Committee on Wednesday. 
'Also front and center will be efforts to modernize and dramatically improve taxpayer service.

If confirmed, I will lead these efforts in close collaboration with this committee and will be unyielding in following my 'true north' -- to increase the public trust, unheralded effective implementation of our taxes and do anything necessary to fund critical government services,' he added.
IRS chief nominee Daniel Werfel insisted the IRS won't be increasing the audit rate on those making under $400,00 in response to a harsh line of questioning from Senate Republicans
Werfel also made clear that he would follow the Biden administration's commitment to ensure racial discrimination does not play into how the tax code is enforced, after a report showing black taxpayers were three times as likely to be audited as other taxpayers. 
'If poor people are more likely to be audited than wealthy, that is something that I think potentially degrades public trust and needs to be addressed within the tax system,' Werfel said. 
Werfel, a business consultant who has served in both the Bush and Obama administrations, has now been nominated to serve in what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., described as one of the 'least popular jobs in town' at a politically fraught time for the agency. 
Biden tapped Werfel to steer the nation's tax collecting agency at a time when it will be tasked with hiring 86,000 new agents with its $80 billion in funding, much to the ire of Republicans. 
House Republicans started off their new majority by passing a bill that would claw back the $80 billion, wsa though it's unlikely to pass the Senate and make its way to the president's desk. 
Werfel, a business consultant who has served in both the Bush and Obama administrations, has now been nominated to serve in what Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., described as one of the 'least popular jobs in town' at a politically fraught time for the agency
Werfel pushed back against the idea that the agency would use the money to drum up a band of heavily armed law enforcement officers. 
'I think the notion of armed agents is incorrect,' he said.

'I certainly would have no intention of making that part of any plan going forward.' 
The Treasury Department has said with the new funding audit rates would not rise 'relative to recent years' but did not specify what recent years it was referring to. 
The IRS has already began requiring Americans to report third-party transactions on apps like PayPal and Venmo if they exceed $600.

The earnings were already taxable, so the law is aimed at codifying how they are reported to crack down on fraud. 
The agency also proposed a new rule last week that would crack down on taxing the
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, top Republican on the Finance Committee, expressed more concerns about 'waste' of the new funding. 
'Sending the I.R.S.

on an unchecked spending binge has no intrinsic value,' he said, 'unless there are outsized results to match the gargantuan investment, the I.R.S.'s supplemental billions will simply become another example of government waste.' 
Werfel temporarily led the IRS in 2013 under President Obama, driving the agency out of a controversy where it admitted to targeting conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. 
It admitted to singling out words like 'Tea Party' and 'patriot' and scrutinizing whether such groups were engaging in social welfare, which would grant them tax-exempt status, or might be political organizations instead. 
He had previously led the Office of Management and Budget under President Bush.  
'So you thought you were in the fire last time you walked into the I.R.S.,' said Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma.

'You've got a lot that's on your plate this time.'