Avoidable Delays at the IRS

As most Americans returned to normal, bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) refused to fully reopen the agency, despite heading into tax season with a backlog of more than 20 million tax returns. While this backlog has grown, calls to the IRS have also gone unanswered, leaving families and small businesses to navigate a complicated maze of red tape resulting from Democrats' massive stimulus package on their own. Americans deserve to have their tax filings processed in a timely manner. Instead, the IRS is mired in delays. Further, economic recovery under the Biden administration is foundering, and, rather than build on successful reforms of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Democrats are dead set on a tax and spend agenda that will only exacerbate challenges like inflation and slow wage growth.

The TCJA lightened the federal tax burden on Americans across every income level. In fact, remarkably, thanks to strong economic growth and wage growth for low- and middle-income workers, 6 million people rose out of poverty, and our poverty rate dropped to 10.5 percent, the lowest level in U.S. history. At the same time, the Congressional Budget Office reported corporate tax revenue is on track to exceed the record set in 2021 by 22 percent and reach $454 billion. This would be the corporate tax revenue's highest level as a share of national GDP since 2015.

The strength and resilience of the pre-COVID economy make clear we should be making TCJA reforms permanent. That is why I am an original cosponsor of the Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act, which would permanently codify the family and small business tax cuts from TCJA, including simplified filings and both the doubled standard deduction and Child Tax Credit (CTC). These Republican-led reforms underscore how tax relief benefited every American family. Unfortunately, Democrats continue to propose raising taxes and will not push to hold the IRS accountable for failing taxpayers.

Currently at the IRS, paper returns are taking as long as eight months to process and, as IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig acknowledged during a Senate hearing earlier this month, the agency is answering no more than 20 percent of incoming service request phone calls. Despite these inefficiencies, rather than reform the IRS, President Biden has proposed expanding its size and power through $80 billion in additional funding – not for customer service, but for enforcement that would increase government intrusion into the privacy and financial affairs of hardworking Americans.

Democrats' conversion of the Child Tax Credit into monthly payments disconnected from work has diverted IRS resources which could be focused on customer service and led to numerous concerns about privacy and errors. In January, the IRS mailed an untold number of incorrect letters regarding CTC information families needed to file their taxes. Additionally, because of poor communication in the CTC expansion rollout, families who received a portion of the CTC in advance last year may receive smaller refunds than they expected. These failures join a long list of Democrat-proposed policies such as taxing gains not yet realized and raising the corporate tax rate which will only squander TCJA gains.

As Democrats continue to propose policies that would further strain our economy, the burden on household budgets continues to rise. Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show inflation has risen every month President Biden has been in office, reaching its highest rate in 40 years. The startling truth is, on average, prices are growing three times faster than paychecks. This means wage gains have been eclipsed by inflation and real wage growth has actually been negative.

With all these challenges it's no surprise more than 60 percent of Americans say their incomes cannot keep up with the rising cost of living, as a recent NBC News poll found. As a member of House Republicans' Jobs and Economy Taskforce, I am working hard to confront these challenges so Americans can prosper. We must continue to fight for commonsense policies that put families first, such as lowering their tax burdens, improving opportunities to connect workers with high-paying jobs, holding the IRS accountable, and helping hardworking Americans save for their futures.