<span class="R~sep~EdDropCapPressEd">T</span><span class="R~sep~EdDropCapPressEd">he federal government’s tax collector, the Internal Revenue Service, was taken to task recently by the Government Accountability Office for budget projections in its justifications to Congress.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">The GAO gave the IRS credit for taking steps to improve the management of its budget. However it was taken to task for not correlating its priorities to relevant appropriations accounts.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">The IRS failed to justify its 2017 budget requests by not providing data on how much had been previously spent on each priority, according to the report.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">The recommended GAO solution to the problem for the IRS was to include all the data on funding on future justifications.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">The watchdog agency pointed out that without all the necessary information, Congress’ ability to make reasonable decisions could be impacted negatively.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">The IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department accepted the GAO recommendations.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">“IRS is working to develop such data, but officials cited challenges with data availability and tracking spending themes,” the GAO noted in its report.” Such information would provide transparency on the current funding levels which assist Congress in making informed budget decisions.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">Citizens’ Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan group that reports waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, released the following statement.</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">“The report is further evidence of an IRS run amok, no surprise to those who have fallen victim to their tactics. Considering 48 percent of Americans view the IRS unfavorably (the least popular of all federal agencies), the IRS should be taking more steps to improve transparency and accountability while collecting taxes, rather wasting taxpayer dollars.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~EdPressedtext">The IRS is a huge bureaucracy that has an important job in keeping the government running. It needs to be courteous, fair and honest in all its dealings with the American people, as well as Congress.</span>