The IRS is looking to integrate AI into its tax collection strategies following significant staff reductions that affected its enforcement capabilities. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated this initiative during a House Appropriations Committee meeting. Despite budget cuts to IT and personnel, Bessent expressed confidence that the AI boom would not only sustain but enhance tax collections, which remained robust in recent years. As workforce reductions have eliminated over 11,000 positions, including a substantial percentage of revenue agents and officers, the IRS must adapt to address these challenges through innovative technological solutions.
I believe through smarter IT, through this AI boom, that we can use that to enhance collections. I expect collections would continue to be very robust as they were this year.
More than 11,000 IRS employees, approximately 11 percent of the Service's workforce, had been terminated since Trump's Office of Personnel Management began directing government agencies to cut jobs.
Revenue agents, whose job it is to audit tax returns for accuracy, made up the bulk of those fired. Those cuts affected 31 percent of the IRS's revenue agent workforce.
Bessent made clear that replacing those terminated employees with new agents and officers wouldn't be worthwhile, as collections agents need time on the job to become effective.
Collection
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