Hear that noise? It’s the collective sighs of tax professionals around the country upon learning that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is in the midst of a hiring spree. In FY 2019, the IRS employed about 78,004 employees, including more than 12,600 temporary and seasonal staff.
According to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, the IRS is hiring thousands of new employees, the most in almost a decade.
Speaking at the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) conference in Washington, D.C., Rettig touted the good news. Rettig has made staffing a priority, noting earlier this year that the agency “essentially lost an entire generation of IRS employees” from 2011 through 2018. During that time, the IRS dropped about 20,000 employees, largely due to budget cuts.
Also, the IRS is gearing up to bring their Collections Division back to levels of activity that we have not seen for several years.
That Means That In 2020 Expect The IRS To Issue More
Wage And Bank Levies, More Liens, And
More Lawsuits To Reduce Outstanding Debt
To 20 Year Judgments.
Also, Payroll taxes withheld by employers account for nearly 72 percent of all revenue collected by the IRS, making noncompliance and fraud in this area one of the biggest challenges for the nation’s tax system. In FY 2019, the IRS engaged in a special two-week effort to address this area of noncompliance. During this period, IRS revenue officers visited nearly 100 businesses around the country suspected of having serious issues with employment tax compliance. Business owners were informed about ways to catch up with back payroll taxes, how to stay current, and the potential for civil and criminal penalties. Expect continuing efforts to be made by the IRS in seeking out taxpayers who have not remitted their payroll tax withholdings in 2020.
Read more at: Tax Times blog