President Trump and GOP congress members have shifted their focus to a major overhaul of the tax code – the biggest in 30 years. This is a highly debated and complicated bill; but the one thing that everyone agrees on is that it will be the job of the Internal Revenue Service to enforce the new laws, and ultimately, collect the taxes under completely new rules.
This will be a task that is more monumental than many might imagine at first; not only will the IRS have to process tens of millions of tax returns under the current, 2017, rules, but also figure out how to interpret and implement a completely new system of rules. The new rules could go into effect as early as February 2018. This provides a small window to get the new system in place, and explain it to the nearly every single worker and company in the U.S. the bill could affect.
Additionally, since 2010, the budget of the IRS has been cut by a whopping $900 million and has seen its staff reduced by 21,000, or 23%. This has many worried that the IRS simply will not have enough resources and manpower to execute a new set of tax laws. With no discussion on the table about appropriations and a new budget for the IRS, it remains a question how lawmakers expect see enforcement and implementation be successful.
The House and Senate are expected to vote on the 1.5 trillion dollar tax overhaul as early as Tuesday, December 19, 2017.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/business/irs-tax-bill.html
