U.S. Treasury denies claims that it will hire new agents to target middle class

The United States Department of the Treasury responded this week to claims by some Republican leaders that it would use funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to hire additional agents to target middle class taxpayers.

The agency denied the claims and said it planned to use the $80 billion in funding to hire 87,000 additional IRS agents who would ramp up the agency’s efforts to collect taxes from middle class Americans. Instead, the Treasury says it plans to utilize the money to target the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

A letter from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig last month detailed the planned uses of the Inflation Reduction Act funding, which, according to the letter, include updating the IRS’ infamously outdated technology to make the agency more efficient.

“The Inflation Reduction Act includes much-needed funding for the IRS to improve taxpayer service, modernize outdated technological infrastructure, and increase equity in the tax system by enforcing the tax laws against those high-earners, large corporations, and complex partnerships who today do not pay what they owe,” Yellen wrote.

Many Republicans have claimed that the Treasury will use the funds to tax the middle class more stringently. Florida Senator Rick Scott last week warned Floridians not to apply for any new jobs as IRS agents, because Republicans would hastily eliminate and defund the positions if they retake the Senate in the November midterms.

Yellen’s letter specifically pointed out that the actual utilization of the funds will “not result in households earning $400,000 per year or less or small businesses seeing an increase in the chances that they are audited relative to historical levels.”