Trump’s budget proposes $200M boost to IRS

President Trump on Monday released a budget proposal that calls for a slight funding increase at the IRS, as the agency faces technology-related challenges and difficulties implementing the GOP’s 2017 tax-cut law.

The White House budget request for fiscal 2020 would boost funding at the IRS to $11.5 billion, up from the current level of $11.3 billion.

{mosads}”The Budget proposes $11.5 billion in base funding for IRS to ensure that IRS can fulfill its core tax filing season responsibilities, continue critical IT modernization efforts, and provide acceptable levels of taxpayer service,” the administration said in a budget document.

The White House said $290 million of the funds should go toward the agency’s multiyear efforts to modernize its information technology.

The IRS has long had technology-related struggles. Last year, it had a systems failure on the tax-filing deadline, involving a relatively new piece of software that resulted in the agency extending the filing deadline by one day.

The agency also is dealing with other challenges, including implementation of the 2017 tax law and recovery from the record 35-day partial government shutdown that ended in January.

Republican lawmakers slashed funding to the IRS during much of the Obama administration, in part because they were upset with the agency’s scrutiny of conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. But some Republicans have been open to giving the IRS a funding boost more recently because they want the agency to smoothly implement the 2017 tax law.

Still, IRS funding is below 2010 levels. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, said the Trump administration’s proposed $200 million budget boost wouldn’t do enough to address the amount of funding that the agency has lost over the past decade.

Trump’s budget also proposes funds for tax enforcement through a “program integrity cap adjustment,” meaning the funds wouldn’t be subject to budget caps. A similar proposal has been included in budget requests both from the Trump and Obama administrations.

The new budget document calls for about $14.5 billion in program integrity cap adjustment spending over 10 years, which the administration estimates could generate about $47 billion in additional revenue.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told reporters Monday that he can support the Trump administration’s call for investments in IRS enforcement.

“It’s at least one area where they’ve focused on the collection of revenue, so we applaud them for that,” he said.

Niv Elis contributed.