The Internal Revenue Service would get $320 million this year to implement the new tax law under the government funding bill released Wednesday evening.
Altogether, the omnibus bill agreed to by Republican and Democratic leadership would set IRS funding at $11.4 billion for fiscal 2018, up $200 million from the year before.
But a significant slice of that would be dedicated to carrying out the tax law, for use before the end of the fiscal year in September. Setting aside funds for the enactment of the tax cuts signed by President Trump, the IRS budget would continue to be squeezed, as it has been for years.
The IRS taxpayer advocate had told Congress that it would take nearly a half a billion dollars over the next two years for the agency to put the new tax law in place.
The major challenge of setting up the new system — including new regimes for non-corporate businesses and international taxation — has led Republicans to be more open to allowing greater funding for the IRS.
The new law will require new forms, new processes, and inevitably more phone calls from taxpayers confused about the new requirements. In recent years, the IRS has struggled to answer phone calls under the old system.
