Despite the Better IRS ad launch and vocal support from Democrats on the issue, proponents still face something of an uphill battle, first and foremost from Republicans dead-set against the idea. However, there's also the matter of getting the IRS all the way from zero to having its own fully equipped filing system, with a customer service force capable of helping taxpayers navigate complex returns, while the agency has just started to secure adequate funding and get up to speed on fulfilling its basic mandates like processing returns in a timely fashion and thoroughly enforcing the tax code. “The Direct eFile program will cost all taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to create, and even more in the future. But it will be an inferior and incomplete product rushed into service and may not have state tax returns, or the security and privacy features that the private sector tax industry meet," the American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights, which represents the nation's leading tax prep and software companies, said in a statement. EYEING VULNERABILITIES: Better IRS has scheduled the ads to run in D.C. and a handful of Republican districts, including those represented by lawmakers most vulnerable to getting their seats flipped by Democrats in 2024. For instance, the campaign will run ads in the California districts represented by Reps. Mike Garcia and Ken Calvert, which were labeled as the most vulnerable “toss ups” according to a July ranking by The Cook Political Report. Better IRS has also homed in on constituents of New York Reps. Nicole Malliotakis and Claudia Tenney, who, as new members of the House Ways and Means Committee, have jurisdiction over tax policy and oversight of the IRS. “I think we felt it was important to remind members who have the jurisdiction that this is an issue that folks really care about,” said Igor Volsky, executive director of the liberal Groundwork Action and manager of the BetterIRS campaign. “Their constituents really deserve to have the choice to not go through a private middleman.” Constituents represented by Ryan Zinke of Montana, Doug Lamborn of Colorado and Mike Simpson of Idaho will also be seeing the new ads hit their screens. THE CHESSBOARD: Despite ever-widening divisions in the House GOP caucus, it's worth noting that Republicans have generally been united on IRS oversight issues. They have railed against the IRS’s new funding ever since the agency originally received $80 billion under the IRA, voting to cleave most of it as part of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s first order of business in the House. And when the IRS released a report assessing the feasibility of a direct filing system and announced the launch of a pilot program, House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) immediately decried the report as an instance of the Biden administration “cook[ing] the books to get exactly the outcome it wanted.” Specifically, Smith and other Republicans insist that the IRS cannot possibly be a fair administrator of tax returns when it has an interest in collecting as much revenue as it can as the enforcer of tax laws. But part of Better IRS’ strategy seems to hinge on a bet that Republican animus towards the idea has less to do with its popularity and more to do with toe-the-line party politics. Volsky told Weekly Tax: “There are members out there who, some of which were targeted here... can really hear that message: that this is a lot less to do with partisan politics and the way things are interpreted in D.C. and a lot more to do with ensuring that American taxpayers are able to easily to do what’s required of them.” Stay tuned.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment