Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Members of the House Ways and Means Committee and IRS watchdogs have expressed concerns about the size of the agency’s tax gap — hundreds of billions of dollars that go uncollected each year — but disagree how best to close the gap.

In today’s Federal Newscast, in their annual report to Congress, Social Security Administration trustees said they expect total costs to exceed income next year, and in all the years beyond that.

The past few months have been particularly challenging for the IRS, with budget ups and downs, a long government shutdown and a complex new tax code.

The timing of the third shutdown of 2018 and the implementation of 2017 tax reform created major paycheck and cash flow problems for tens of thousands around the nation.

President Donald Trump signed the 2019 spending bill into law, securing a 1.9 percent pay raise for federal employees that will be retroactive to Jan. 1.

The IRS is still reeling from the effects of the 35-day shutdown that ended last month, according to the agency’s taxpayer watchdog office.

The IRS processed “several million” tax returns on Monday in the opening hours of the tax filing season, but the effects of a 35-day partial government shutdown that ended Friday still leaves open questions about the agency’s readiness. 

The Interior Department’s IG reported two of the nation’s largest hydropower dams are at risk from insider threats.

A specific population of federal employees, including those new hires and retiring senior executives who relocated for their jobs in 2018, are still seeing unintended consequences of the new tax act.

Long-awaited guidance from the General Services Administration will help make federal employees whole who must relocate for their job.