IDAHO, USA — The 2022 mid-term elections have brought a heavy rotation of political ads. One often repeated claim from republican candidates deals with the number of new employees the IRS is expected to hire in the coming years.
Dozens of viewers reached out to ask about a specific ad by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo.
In the ad, the Senator claims democratic leaders have "super sized the IRS," creating an agency larger than the Pentagon. It's a claim we found needs context.
THE QUESTION
An IRS larger than the pentagon… Is it true?”
THE SOURCES
- Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
- U.S. Department of the Treasury
- IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig
- U.S. Department of Defense
THE ANSWER
The claim that the IRS will be larger than the Pentagon needs context.
The Pentagon states online that it houses approximately 24,000 military and civilian employees and 3,000 non-defense support personnel.
While that is fewer people than the IRS plans to hire, or currently has on staff, the Pentagon is one building that includes a small percentage of people who work for the Department of Defense.
The D.O.D. employs more than 2.9 million service members and civilians and is the largest employer in the United States.
WHAT WE FOUND
The political ad from Sen. Crapo makes several claims that we can break down.
$80 billion for the IRS
The budget of $80 billion for the IRS comes from the Inflation Reduction Act passed earlier this year on party lines.
It allocates $ 80 billion dollars over the next ten years to fund several IRS functions, including taxpayer services, enforcement, operations, and more.
87,000 new recruits
Another talking point is that the IRS plans to hire 87,000 new recruits.
That number comes from a May 2021 report from the Treasury Department.
Working off a plan similar to the one that passed, the Treasury Department estimated that the funding would allow the IRS to hire 86,852 employees over the next decade.
“The IRS has fewer front-line, experienced examiners in the field than at any time since World War two, and fewer employees than at any time since the 1970s," the IRS Commissioner wrote in a letter to the Senate.
The letter goes on to add, “These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans”
IRS larger than the Pentagon
As previously noted earlier in this article. The IRS does have more employees than work at the Pentagon, which is one building that houses employees for the Department of Defense. Overall the Department of Defense is the largest employer in the United States, larger than the IRS.
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