On January 11, 2012, the national taxpayer advocate, Nina E. Olson wrote in her annual IRS report the statement “The imbalance between its workload and its resources is becoming unmanageable.”

 

Olson is an independent watchdog within the agency. She complains about the damage the Congress has been inflecting to the IRS by shortchanging its budget. She also added that it is harder for the IRS to help taxpayers more efficiently, detecting frauds with the limitations on the resources. She clearly stated that the IRS substantially relies on their software to do such investigations. To support her statements, she had written in her IRS report that the agency computers set aside 1.1 million tax returns seeking refunds last year for examination for possible frauds, having a 72% increase from 2010.

 

With the limitations and short-budgeting Olson, has stated in the report issues the IRS has been encountering. To begin with is the agency’s computer programs which creates mistakes of their own and limit personal contact the agency has with the taxpayers. According to Olson’s report, this results to the erosion of the rights of the people who have conflicts with the IRS. Another problem she also wrote in her report was the combination of the IRS’s expanding workload and the limited resources available to it.

 

The IRS’s budget this 2012 is $11.8 billion, $300 billion below last 2011 and less than $1.5 billion, as requested by President Barack Obama. The president said that his IRS budget request would improve tax collections and enhance service, but he was unable to win over lawmakers.

 

Olson emphasizes on the IRS budget to begin with. She was highlighting a politically sensitive issue. She said, “While fewer dollars in a tight budget environment impacts elements of taxpayer service, it does nothing to erode our protection of taxpayers.”