Jean-Pierre promises NO new IRS audits on Americans making less than $400,000 by 87,000 new agents

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promised there will be no new IRS audits on anyone making less than $400,000 once the agency hires 87,000 new agents. 

‘Who around here decided that Americans were crying out for more interaction with the IRS’?’ Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked the press secretary. 

‘I don’ understand your question,’ the press secretary responded. 

The reporter pointed to a provision of the Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act which would dedicate $80 billion to the IRS to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. 

Jean-Pierre reiterated claims from IRS chief Charles Rettig, who said that audit rates would not rise for households making under $400,000. 

‘So no new audits for anyone making under $400,000?’ Doocy asked. ‘No. Very clear – no,’ Jean-Pierre replied. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office the beefed-up enforcement would bring in net $127 billion over 10 years to help offset costs in the $700 billion inflation Reduction Act.  

Jean-Pierre reiterated claims from IRS chief Charles Rettig, who said that audit rates would not rise for households making under $400,000

Republicans have claimed the opposite – that audits would be targeted at low mid-level earners. 

House Republicans released an analysis Tuesday claiming those who earn less than $75,000 or less would be subject to 60 percent of new audits under the bill. 

The analysis, based on recent audit rates and tax filing data, showed that those making $75,000 or less would be subject to 710,863 additional Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits. Those making more than $1 million would receive 52,295 more audits under the bill. 

‘Value shoppers at Walmart and other retailers, already struggling with higher prices and more expensive fuel to drive to the store, will get hit with 710,000 additional audits thanks to the Manchin-Biden Democrat bill’, Rep. Kevin Brady, GOP leader of the House Ways & Means Committee, said in a statement. ‘Every retailer in the U.S. who cares about their hard-hit customers should be fighting to block this unnecessary harassment of hard-working Americans.’ 

The bill does not guarantee that those making under $400,000 won’t be audited at a higher rate, but includes language stipulating that it is not ‘intended’ to increase rates for those who are not in the top 1 percent. 

‘In this bill, there is legislation to hire 86,000 (sic) more IRS agents – to supersize, put the IRS on steroids. Do the math, it’s a million dollars per IRS agent,’ Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a press conference last Wednesday. 

‘You don’t need that many IRS agents to go after a few people that they say are very, very rich. This is coming after the families, and the farmers, and the small businesses of America,’ he warned.

The IRS is getting an additional $80 billion in funding to hire 87,000 new IRS agents 

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., member of the Senate Banking Subcommittee, said that too much funding was going toward enforcement and not enough toward customer service.

‘This is an agency that only succeeded in answering about one out of every 50 phone calls during the 2021 tax season,’ Thune said on the Senate floor. ‘Yet four percent of the $80 billion is going to taxpayer services — 57 percent goes to enforcement, so that the IRS can spend more time harassing taxpayers around this country.’

‘All of this money going to the IRS, you would think it would go towards technology first and taxpayer service second, which are related,’ Sen. Rob Portman, a member of the Senate Banking Subcommittee, said at the press conference. 

Marc Goldwein, an economist with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, argued that enhancing enforcement has historically been a bipartisan priority.

‘Every single president from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump has supported more IRS funding to close the tax gap,’ Goldwein said.

The White House touted a statement from three ex-IRS commissioners endorsing the provisions and ‘Debunk Lies About Increased Enforcement Affecting Anyone but Rich Tax Cheats’:

‘As former IRS commissioners, we have watched the agency closely over the years, and understand far too well that the status quo is not tenable: The IRS has a workforce that has shrunk to 1970s levels with technological infrastructure that is decades out-of-date and an audit rate that has dropped by 50 percent. The sustained, multi-year funding contained in the reconciliation package is critical to help the agency rebuild.’

‘This bill is about getting to the heart of the problem’ write Fred Goldberg, Charles Rossotti and John Koskinen, ‘and pursuing high-end taxpayers and corporations who today illegally evade their tax obligations.’