The Internal Revenue Service may add to its payroll some 8,000 new enforcement agents in the next two years.
That projection was made by Daniel Werfel, in testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, who also said that ongoing slow response times and administrative decisions by the agency has been due to a lack of manpower.
The Commissioner of the IRS, Werfel said the agency’s ultimate goal is to have a headcount of around 100,000 employees by 2028.
Continued Werfel: “We’re hiring not just agents, we’re hiring customer services reps, accountants, agents.”
In projecting a 100,000-member staff, Werfel added: “We have published our three-year view of staffing, which I’m very confident on because I can make key assumptions about the needs and market trends. We are at 90,000 today, and I think over the next three years we should be over 100,000, but not much over 100,000.”
A report filed by the Government Accountability Office recently said that the IRS has been additionally hamstrung by a large turnover rate, which comprises roughly 7.5% annually, and may be as high as 23% among employees working for the agency only two to three years.
Even so, Werfel said that new funding to the tune of $60 billion via the Inflation Reduction Act has allowed the agency to sign on more workers. One result: while only 15% of calls to the IRS were answered in 2022, that number increased to 87% this year.
The Commissioner continued: “The IRS for several years was unable to audit a reasonable percentage of complex returns of high-dollar groups, especially wealthy individuals, large corporations, and complex partnerships.”
But with the new funding via the Inflation Reduction Act, said Werfel, “We are turning that around.”
By Garry Boulard
