President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats are touting the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping spending bill that was signed into law to address climate change, lower prescription drug costs and reduce the federal deficit.

But Republicans are latching onto one provision in particular as the target of their ire: Nearly $80 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service.

What You Need To Know

  • The Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats' sweeping climate change, health care and tax bill, includes nearly $80 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service

  • Republicans have blasted the provision, baselessly claiming that the Biden administration will use "American taxpayer money to hire an army of 87,000 new IRS agents"

  • The Treasury Department has pushed back on Republicans' claims, saying that the funding will largely go toward updating and modernizing taxpayer services and operations

  • Experts say the IRS funding is well overdue and urgently needed

“American families don’t want tens of thousands more IRS agents,” Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY., said.  

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., struck a similar tone: "You are going to spend $80 billion of hard-earned American taxpayer money to hire an army of 87,000 new IRS agents." 

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who chairs the Senate GOP's campaign arm, warned those interested in applying for IRS jobs that Republicans will "defund" them should they retake Congress: “These new positions at the IRS will not offer you the long-term job stability you may expect from a position with the federal government.” 

However, the Treasury has rejected those claims. According to a report from ABC News, the Treasury is not planning to hire 87,000 new agents. Rather, it is expected that the IRS will use the money appropriated from the Inflation Reduction Act to hire tens of thousands of people, many of whom will replace workers who have left or are on the verge of retirement. 

"Specifically, I direct that any additional resources—including any new personnel or auditors that are hired—shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig earlier this month. "This means that, contrary to the misinformation from opponents of [Inflation Reduction Act], small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited."

"Instead, enforcement resources will focus on high-end noncompliance," she continued." There, sustained, multiyear funding is so critical to the agency’s ability to make the investments needed to pursue a robust attack on the tax gap by targeting crucial challenges, like large corporations, high-networth individuals and complex pass-throughs, where today the IRS has resources to initiate just 7,500 audits annually out of more than 4 million returns received."

A spokesperson for the IRS told ABC News that much of the funding will go toward modernizing the agency's operations and improving taxpayer services, "from answering the phones to improving IT systems."

"There is no question that the Internal Revenue Service has more responsibilities, at the same time that its budget allocation has been cut ... for over a decade," Susan B. Long, an associate professor of managerial statistics at Syracuse University Whitman School of Management told Spectrum News.

Long says her research shows that the IRS doesn't have "enough staff to answer the phones" and that the statistics have shown that they only "answered about one out of 10 calls." 

"There’s also a need to upgrade technology and improve customer service," she added.  

They are using "technology from the 60s and 70s" because the IRS hasn't received funding to upgrade their technology," she continued. 

The goal is for the IRS to use the funding to reverse the effect of funding cuts that have reduced its budget by nearly 20% since 2010. 

Consequently, the IRS has had a "substantive decline in audits," and while some people may like that, it makes "the tax code more difficult to administer," Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center told Spectrum News. 

Not only will the tax code be easier to administer with additional funding, but it also calls for hiring "skilled experienced computer scientists who can refine systems,” Holtzblatt said. 

Holtzblatt said she had some doubts about the IRS securing the funding this year: "It is, in my view, somewhat miraculous, that the amount of money that the administration asked for a year ago has been enacted in full." 

“This drain has partly been due to people reaching retirement age, but they also couldn't be replaced because the IRS had a hiring freeze for seven years, and also had these deep budget cuts,” Holtzblatt added. 

The administration says the extra money and staff will allow the IRS to increase enforcement, with the goal of recovering taxes not paid by high earners and corporations. 

"Audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000 annually," Yellen wrote in her letter to Commissioner Rettig. 

"This historic investment in our tax system will accomplish two critical objectives," Yellen wrote. "It will raise substantial revenue to address the deficit; and it will create a fairer system, where those at the top who do not today comply with their tax obligations find it far less easy to do so, and where all taxpayers receive the service from the IRS that they deserve, and that your dedicated workforce is eager to deliver. The importance of the work ahead cannot be overstated."