Report: IRS spending cuts would hurt businesses

Reductions in the IRS budget could make matters more difficult for the business sector, a new report from a law and lobbying firm says.

According to the analysis from K&L Gates, reduced IRS funding would hurt the agency’s ability to help taxpayers and businesses understand tax-related legislation and policies. 

The report, by the firm’s Mary Burke Baker, also noted that Congress passed several measures last year that dealt with taxes, including the lame-duck compromise over the Bush tax cuts and small-business legislation. 

“Many of these statutes address very technical and complex aspects of tax law, and substantial regulatory authority was granted to the Secretary of the Treasury to implement them,” the report said. “Without such guidance, it will be difficult or impossible for businesses to know what they need to do to gear up for them, or to understand and assess their effects on business results and tax burden.”

The analysis comes not long after the GOP-led House voted to roll back the IRS’s funding in its efforts to cut billions of dollars worth of spending this year. For its part, the White House proposed increased investments in the IRS in its fiscal 2012 budget to help with compliance and other issues. 

The administration’s budget request for the IRS would reportedly lead to around 5,000 new IRS employees, an idea that has not been well-received by some on Capitol Hill.