IRS workers describe shortages of staff and printer paper. Critics see a powerful agency hostile to taxpayers.
The Internal Revenue Service is on the brink of a major funding infusion from Congress that Democrats and agency workers say is badly needed to boost efficiency and revenues, but the plan has inflamed critics on the right who see the IRS as a tool of government overreach, as disinformation around the proposal swirls on social media and cable news . At the IRS office in Cincinnati, where Will Kohler works as a tax examiner, supply shortages mean he sometimes has to use his own pens and paper clips. He has even brought in paper for the copy machine over his 10 years there, which he says is just part of the job at the chronically paperbound and technologically outdated agency. Kohler and other IRS employees said the $80 billion spread out over a decade contained in the Inflation Reduction Act — the Democrats' climate and spending bill expected to pass the House on Friday — would help address bottlenecks partly due to staffing issues, which can add delays and complications for taxpaye...