Ronald Reagan managed to make the ominous sound humorous.
He famously noted, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”
Reagan may have played it for laughs, but Joe Biden and his bunch hope to use it to take more of your hard-earned money — and procure even more political power.
The Internal Revenue Service — the same bureaucratic entity in the process of adding 87,000 new agents — also plans to expand its duties into the realm of tax preparation.
You read that right.
Imagine “H&R Blocked.” TurboTax unplugged. A CPA signaling SOS.
It could become reality if Congress allows our big-spending Uncle Sam to take over as the nation’s tax preparer.
Like most dubious schemes hatched in Washington, this one would start small, utilizing a “pilot project.”
Calling the proposal “Direct File,” the IRS recently announced it will prepare the taxes of select Americans who make under $125,000 in the upcoming tax year.
While some trusting souls — those you see wearing a mask while driving alone in a car or the comparative few who regard Joe Biden as an honest, hard-working public servant — would leap at the chance to have the agency in charge of collecting taxes prepare their returns for them, most of us would say, “No, thank you.”
The reason is obvious.
You never hear IRS officials brag that “‘Revenue’ is our middle name,” yet the agency exists to do just that: maximize the nation’s tax revenue. It’s not an entity you or your loved ones should expect to have your best interests at heart.
A 2022 study from the MITRE Corporation, which operates many federally funded research and development centers — including those within the Treasury Department — showed that the public wouldn’t want the IRS filing tax returns. The reason? Mistrust of the agency.
That mistrust was only compounded when the IRS chose not to release the 2022 study until last month — days after Fox News reported its existence.
Then the agency, apparently in full-fledged “damage control,” claimed it never commissioned the study.
Understandably, Congress finds that hard to believe — especially Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri).
“It’s alarming that the Biden IRS has not come forward and been transparent about MITRE’s independent findings when the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ itself calls for a truly nonpartisan, independent, third-party review of the feasibility, the cost to develop and operate such a system, the IRS capacity to run such a system, or taxpayer opinions on the matter.”
You can understand why Smith and the lone Arizonan serving on Ways & Means, Rep. David Schweikert, might have a low opinion of the IRS and its conduct toward Congress. Actually, the apparent concealment of the MITRE study fits a pattern of incidents that call into question the integrity of those running the agency.
Author – J.D. Hayworth
In April, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel testified that “no decision has been made on moving forward with (a) ‘Direct File’ solution.” That testimony came on April 19 — not April Fool’s Day. In May, the IRS announced it would indeed move forward with the “Direct File” pilot.
That’s why it’s important to remember that the “I” in IRS does not stand for “Integrity.”
It’s obvious that America’s tax bureaucrats are scheming to grab more operational power. The aforementioned 87,000 new agents and the $80 billion added to the agency’s budget are aimed at increasing audits on taxpayers earning less than $75,000 a year.
How on earth could the IRS then take over as America’s preparer and filer?
Congress must assert its oversight authority, end these IRS power grabs and disconnect “Direct File” before it’s too late.
After all, President Reagan also said our nation should “trust but verify.”
Sadly, it seems with the IRS, we can do neither.
Written by J.D. Hayworth for The West Valley View ~ June 22, 2023
