Publisher's Synopsis
Chairman Boozman, Ranking Member Coons, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Fiscal Year (FY)1 2016 budget request, our recent work related to the most significant challenges currently facing the IRS, and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's (TIGTA) FY 2016 budget request. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, also known as "TIGTA," is statutorily mandated to provide independent audit and investigative services necessary to improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the IRS, including the IRS Chief Counsel and the IRS Oversight Board. TIGTA's oversight activities are designed to identify high-risk systemic inefficiencies in IRS operations and to investigate exploited weaknesses in tax administration. TIGTA's role is critical in that we provide the American taxpayer with assurance that the approximately 91,0002 IRS employees, who collected over $3.1 trillion in tax revenue, processed over 242 million tax returns and other forms, and issued $374 billion in tax refunds3 during FY 2014, perform their duties in an effective and efficient manner while minimizing the risks of waste, fraud, or abuse. The IRS is the largest component of the Department of the Treasury and has primary responsibility for administering the Federal tax system. The IRS's budget request supports the Department of the Treasury's Strategic Goal of fairly and effectively reforming and modernizing Federal financial management, accounting and tax systems and the Department of the Treasury Agency Priority Goal of increasing self-service and electronic service options for taxpayers. The IRS Strategic Plan for FY 2014-2017 provides a central direction for the agency and guides program and budget decisions. The IRS's strategic goals are to: deliver high quality and timely service to reduce taxpayer burden and encourage voluntary compliance, and 2) effectively enforce the law to ensure compliance with tax responsibilities and combat fraud. To achieve these goals, the proposed FY 2016 IRS budget requests appropriated resources of approximately $12.9 billion.4 The total appropriation amount is an increase of $2 billion, or approximately 18 percent more than the FY 2015 enacted level of approximately $10.9 billion. This increase is illustrated in Table 1. The budget request includes a net staffing increase of 9,245 Full-Time Equivalents (FTE)5 for a total of approximately 90,524 appropriated FTEs.
