WASHINGTON, D.C. – Lawless and politically-motivated behavior by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) coupled with repeated failures to rebuild trust with American taxpayers or take action against entities that abuse their tax-exempt status shows that the IRS has not gotten the message from the American people that business as usual is unacceptable, writes Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) in a letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell. In his letter, Chairman Smith affirms the need for ongoing oversight of the agency and agency heads to ensure accountability and positive change at the IRS:
“Aggressive oversight of the IRS continues to be a top priority for the Committee, and the election results made it clear that the American people are looking for accountability. President Trump has shown in his first 3 weeks that he meant what he said during the Presidential campaign. Our government has not been working effectively for the American people, and it needs to change. We will be watching closely to make certain that the IRS timely complies with all laws, Executive Orders, direction from the Secretary of the Treasury, and requests from the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance.”
The letter to Acting Commissioner O’Donnell highlights specific examples of how the IRS has abdicated its responsibilities and failed to keep its commitments to the American taxpayer and Congress – including:
- Retaliating against two IRS whistleblowers who brought claims of corruption and preferential treatment for Hunter Biden – claims that have been vindicated by the courts and President Biden’s blanket pardon of his son.
- Enthusiastically embracing the $80 billion pay raise given to the agency by Democrats and using the money to prioritize audits on working families rather than modernizing its operations.
- Failing to restore confidence in the security of taxpayer data following the theft and leak of such information by a former IRS contractor as well as failing to take aggressive action against tax-exempt organizations that have fueled antisemitic chaos and supported terrorism.
- Taking various unauthorized or outright illegal actions, such as launching and expanding a Direct File program that Congress never approved and playing politics on the implementation, or lack thereof, of extremely unpopular new thresholds for 1099-K tax reporting – most recently imposing a $5,000 transactional threshold for 1099-K reporting, in direct violation of what was signed into law by Democrats.
Read the full letter here.