A group of Senate Republicans introduced a bill this week that will ensure that the Internal Revenue Service can’t audit Americans making under $400,000 a year using the boost of funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
The two-page bill puts into writing what IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig pledged to senators in August, when he said the decade-long, $80 billion cash infusion to the IRS was ‘absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.’
‘The bill has teeth, in contrast to unenforceable, nonbinding statements of intention or unenforceable, vague Treasury Department edicts to not squeeze more revenue out of the middle class,’ said Senate Finance Committee Republicans on Monday.
The effort was led by Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the committee’s ranking member, who had offered a similar amendment when the bill was going through Senate debate.
‘Democrats cannot achieve their desired tax revenue goals without targeting the middle class, small businesses and taxpayers earning under $400,000 per year -taxpayers who cannot afford teams of lawyers and legal fees – which is why they rejected my original amendment,’ Crapo said in a statement.
A group of Senate Republicans introduced a bill this week that will ensure that the Internal Revenue Service can’t audit Americans making under $400,000 a year using the boost of funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act
The effort was led by Sen. Mike Crapo (pictured) of Idaho, the committee’s ranking member, who had offered a similar amendment when the bill was going through Senate debate
‘While advocates promise they do not intend to increase audits on people making less than $400,000, the best way to protect those taxpayers is to turn that promise into law,’ the Idaho Republican added.
The Republican bill won’t get anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The $400,000 salary cap was likely used because, as a candidate, Democratic President Joe Biden pledged to never raise taxes on Americans making less than that.
In the run-up to the Inflation Reduction Act becoming law, Republicans drummed up a hysteria surrounding the IRS’ proposed influx of funds.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted calls to ‘Abolish the IRS.’
He also claimed that ‘Schumer-Manchin would fund 87,000 IRS agents.’
‘Just imagine THOUSANDS of IRS agents descending upon America like a swarm of locusts!’ he tweeted.
In the run-up to the Inflation Reduction Act becoming law, Republicans drummed up a hysteria surrounding the IRS’ proposed influx of funds, including Sen. Ted Cruz, who tweeted: ‘Abolish the IRS’
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley asked on Fox: ‘Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded ready to shoot some small business person in Iowa?’
On the House floor arguing against passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Rep. Lauren Boebert – usually a Second Amendment enthusiast – also brought up agents being armed.
‘This bill hires 87,000 new IRS agents and they are armed and the job description tells them that they need to be required to carry a firearm and expected to use deadly force if necessary,’ she said.
‘Excessive taxation is theft,’ she added.
The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sen. Rick Scott, wrote an open letter to job seekers last week encouraging them not to apply for positions at the IRS.
New hires, Scott argued, would ‘need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, to kill them,’ he said.
Armed IRS agents became part of the threat after a job description was passed around the internet saying that applicants must be comfortable with using deadly force.
The ad was for the agency’s Criminal Investigation Division.
In a MarketWatch explainer of IRS hiring practices, a spokesperson explained that this was the norm for the small amount of law enforcement hires within the government agency.
‘The job description is consistent with previous special-agent announcements for the same position and consistent with announcements from other federal law-enforcement agencies,’ a spokeswoman said.
She added that the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division is the federal government’s sixth largest law enforcement agency.
Other Republicans drew comparisons betweetn the IRS and the FBI, in the aftermath of ther raid of Trump’s Florida home and club, Mar-a-Lago.
In his floor speech before the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that no part of the federal government could be trusted.
‘This is just a trainwreck waiting to happen,’ the California Republican said. ‘And with this new power, the IRS will snoop around in your bank account, your Venmo, your small buinsess, then the government will shake you down for every last penny.’
During her floor speech ahead of the Inflation Reduction Act vote, Rep. Lauren Boebert – usually a Second Amendment advocate – yelled that new IRS hires will be ‘required to carry a firearm and expected to use deadly force if necessary’
‘In light of this week’s events, let me ask you can you really trust this administration?’ McCarthy said, referencing the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago property. ‘I’ve watched Democrats weaponize the government before.’
Since then, Rettig has said that the IRS was doing a full security review of its facilities.
‘We see what’s out there in terms of social media. Our workforce is concerned about their safety,’ Rettig told The Washington Post in late August. ‘The comments being made are extremely disrespectful to the agency, to the employees and to the country.’
Rettig, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, sent out a letter to employees informing them that the IRS would be undertaking a risk assessment for each of the IRS’s 600 faciliies – the first of its kind since the Oklahoma City federal building bombing in 1995.
‘For me this is personal,’ Rettig said. ‘I’ll continue to make every effort to dispel any lingering misperceptions about our work. And I will continue to advocate for your safety in every venue where I have an audience. You go above and beyond every single day, and I am honored to work with each of you.’