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Matthew Weir: Budget cuts have hampered IRS’ ability to do its job

Budget cuts totaling $1.1 billion over the past five years impacted nearly every fact of the Internal Revenue Service's mission. The Treasury Inspector General ...

July 9, 2015 6:38 pm

< a min read

Budget cuts totaling $1.1 billion over the past five years impacted nearly every fact of the Internal Revenue Service's mission. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says IRS officers answered 25 percent fewer taxpayer phone calls over past four years. And the agency closed 34 percent fewer cases. Computer network downtime topped nearly 66-thousand hours. Matthew Weir is an assistant IG for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the kinds of work automated service collection contact representatives and field collection officers do and how it's suffered.