The Wrecking Crew in action/inaction
Cuts to the IRS budget hurt compliance rates among taxpayers, both the dishonest and honest. Audits have slowed, and by many metrics, customer service quality has plummeted. Millions of calls come into the IRS each year from taxpayers who want to pay what they owe but who have questions about how to navigate the byzantine tax code. In 2013, about 40 percent never got through to a representative. The lucky ones who did had to wait an average of nearly 18 minutes, up from 2.6 minutes a decade earlier. Backlogs in taxpayer correspondence have likewise become enormous.