6-Month Timeline for IRS Plan to Target Tax Cheats: Yellen

What You Need to Know

None of the funds will be used to increase enforcement tied to those earning under $400,000 a year, according to a memo.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen set a six-month timeframe for the Internal Revenue Service to compile a plan detailing how it will deploy an influx of $80 billion in enforcement funding over the next decade.

“The work will require an all-hands-on-deck approach from the dedicated employees of the IRS,” Yellen wrote in a memo Wednesday to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, a day after President Joe Biden signed legislation including the new funding.

The strategic plan will provide a roadmap for what has been the largest dedicated funding stream provided to the IRS in decades. The details could also help insulate the agency from political criticism.

Republicans, many whom opposed giving the IRS the extra money, have said it’s using the funding to hire an additional 87,000 auditors to target middle-class households.

In her memo, Yellen pointed to broader objectives, saying the plan “will require the agency to modernize,” by overhauling an information-technology system “that is decades out of date.”

The agency will need to clear a backlog of tax returns and boost services for taxpayers, along with “training employees so they can identify the most complex evasion schemes by those at the top,” she said.