How TIGTA and Forbes Have One Leg Up for Taxpayers By Holding the IRS Accountable! Recorded 8-9-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Well, you know who can't relate to having no espresso.
My fiance Gabby turns out in her incredible birthday week,
which included a met game on Wednesday thanks to Vivid
Seats and we went with her dad and her cousin
and then of course thanks to Ulie's and thanks to

(00:32):
so many this week for making her birthday extra special.
The icing on the cake was actually espresso because yesterday
we found out Gaby and I did Starbucks shout out
to Starbucks for this makes forty ounces of cold brew,
you know, cold cold brew and espresso. Because I didn't

(00:56):
know this. You can actually bring home forty ounces of
americanom espresso. And I'm sure there's others as well, other
flavors and whatnot, but things is Starbucks. I mean, that
just is so convenient and cost saving if you will,
I know you want to sometimes people want to go
to the store. But if you can bring home that

(01:16):
Starbucks cold version without any sweetener by the way, or cream,
that's a win win. So fifteen galleries and only fifteen calories,
so that's pretty cool. And so that really was a
top off of Gabby's birthday so far. She was just
so excited to get these two different flavors of Starbucks

(01:37):
in a bottle, if you will. Now, something that's been
bottled up inside of me the last couple of days
is this report that the IRS has spent thirteen point
nine billion dollars of congressional appropriations that total thirty seven

(02:01):
point three billion dollars. Why this is interesting and why
it's interesting Forbes came out with this report on Wednesday
is because yesterday President Trump went ahead and removed Billy Long,
the IRS Commissioner since waited for it June twenty twenty five.

(02:28):
That's right, it took just a few months for President
Trump to be tired of Billy Long and what he
was doing at the IRS that as former Senator of Missouri,
Long says, it has been an honor to serve my
friend President Trump, and I am excited to take on

(02:49):
my new role as the ambassador to Iceland. So nothing
says get the hell out of Washington like being named
ambassador to Iceland after I guess Trump believes he did
not run the Department of the Agency correctly. Now, this
was a letter to NBC News, and you know who's

(03:12):
going to become now the sixth person this year to
oversee the agency under Trump the current Treasury Secretary Scott Besson.
So now Treasury Secretary Besson will become the IRS commissioner
while looking for a new FED Chair of the Federal Reserve,

(03:32):
while trying to get deals done with China, who house China, Canada,
and Mexico, as well as other countries dealing with tariffs.
And he's not the only acting I believe Marco Rubio
is also wearing many hats besides the Secretary of State.

(03:53):
So just like the last term, there's a lot of
interim ness going on, an acting head chair and acting
head agency going on, and it will linger because you know,
Senate nominees aren't going to confirm anytime soon. As Trump
told Schumer to go to Hell, I digress. It's just
amazing that this guy, Billy Long was removed three days

(04:18):
after it was reported the IRS has only spent thirteen
point seven or thirteen point eight billion dollars of the
thirty seven point six billion dollars which is expected to
last the agency through twenty thirty one. Now, I originally

(04:42):
was thinking, boy, oh boy, how can they only spend
thirteen point eight billion in fiscal year of twenty five.
Then you see it's lasting. It's supposed to last through
twenty thirty one. But I think this is a big
part of this. I think this article and this rerealization
that hey, you've been appropriated thirty seven point six billion dollars,

(05:05):
and you know, Trump wants the results fast. I think
he looks at he's the numbers guy. He'll look at
these numbers and say, wait a minute, Congress gave you
this money. Thirty seven point six billion dollars. Okay, they
clawed back forty one point eight billion of the seventy
nine point four originally earmarked for you. But I digress.

(05:27):
Thirty seven point six billion dollars. And Kelly Phillips of
Forbes broke it down really well. And here's the one
that I think is fascinating. The budget allocates five point
four billion dollars for enforcement. Now here's the funny part
of all this. Of all the different divisions that the

(05:47):
IRS budget has to take care of, enforcement was the
most budgeted for, okay, meaning they're gonna pay to make
sure we pay our taxes on time. Because these funds
are intended to support enforcement activit such as identifying and
collected old taxes. Providing legal and litigation assistance, and conducting
criminal investigations, you know, because Diddy's out there committing tax

(06:10):
fraud amongst other things. He wasn't convicted for I digress again.
Five point four billion dollars of this thirty seven point
six is allocated for enforcement. And we all want our

(06:35):
tax dollars and taxes to be filed without issue, right.
We want to make tax day. We want we don't
want extensions where if we do, we want the extension
to be hassle free. We want filing our taxes to
be hassle free. But we all know the IRS deals
with backlogs and all this as well. Where that comes

(06:58):
in is the two point eight billion dollars for tax
pay Services, which are intended to support pre filing assistance
and education, filing and account services, and taxpayer advocacy. Funds
may also be allocated for the tax counseling for the elderly,
low income taxpayer Clinic grants and the community volunteer income
tax Assistance Matching Grants program. So the IRS does help you,

(07:23):
and they're going to get money to do that to
help you file if you need it. But overall the
fact they've only spent thirteen point eight billion is maybe
a cause of concern for Trump. Maybe he wants them
to move faster. Maybe he wants the funds set aside

(07:47):
for the operations support to cover the agency's regular operating expenses,
including rent. Yes, the IRS pays rent as well for
their offices, facility services, printing, and physical security. Research are
getting income statistics as well as information technology development, enhancement, operations, maintenance,

(08:10):
and security. It's almost like these IRS offices are everyday offices.
So why are they askling us to get there our
money in time when they're just like everyday people too.
We all pay rent. According to the IRS, they pay rent. Also.
That's besides the point. What I'm fascinated by about all
of this is they've spent a whopping thirteen point eight

(08:32):
billion dollars, but that's not enough. I don't think that's enough.
I think if they're given them money, they are expected
and I know it's supposed to last them through twenty
thirty one, but I'm pretty sure they're expected to use
as much as they can this fiscal year, and they haven't,

(08:53):
And so I'm wondering if there's some kind of misuse
President Trump wants to get to the bottom of realize
until looking this up, the IRS has already cut twenty
five percent of the workforce. There were people leaving the
workforce interestingly enough, and stats are as shown on this

(09:22):
NBC News article, which I will talk about as well.
But twenty five percent, and I think the thousands that
have left the IRS probably during the turnover period as

(09:45):
they rate here or Kelly Phillips wrights here for Forbes,
that twenty three hundred and eighty six employees have separated,
taken an offer, or use some other incentive to leave.
The two hundred and ninety four people were fired probably
during the Doge run there when they were trying to

(10:07):
cut government waste. But all this is say, it still
doesn't make sense how they've gotten thirty seven point eight
billion or so and only thirteen point eight of that
has been used. That's where the disconnect is because you
would think, and I know that twenty thirty one takes

(10:30):
a long that's going to be needless been very wisely
if you have to last till twenty thirty one. But
this is the US government, this is Congress we're talking about.
They'll give the IRS more money. I think the frustration
here has to be because no, really, no one really
knows why Trump really removed it. So I'm trying to
play a guesting game here. It could be the tariffs

(10:56):
as well that have been rocking the news cycle. I mean,
do you see the number of the fifty percent tariffs.
He's been doing one hundred percent tariffs. It's been ridiculous,
And maybe he wants a commission that's going to keep
up with all of this. But if you don't think
he's looking at the numbers and saying, hey, we gave
you thirty seven point eight billion dollars, where is that money,

(11:20):
then you are mistaken. He definitely has an eye on
how much money the IRS has gotten or all these
agency have gotten. You see him with Fed Chair Powell
about the building, the building extension and how much that
was gonna be at the Fed Reserve. He knows what

(11:40):
agencies are getting what money. He's not a stupid person.
He might talk stupid sometimes, but he doesn't think stupid
most of the time, especially when it comes to finances.
So if you think he's not watching this and saying, hey,
we gave you thirty seven point six billion dollars and
you've only is thirteen point eight of that? Where's the

(12:03):
other twenty four billion dollars? Where is that saved up?
What are you doing with that money? We want to know.
We want to know, and I don't think every American
should want to know where the agency they're supposed to
pay into every April fifteenth, or be worried about lians

(12:24):
on their houses or garnishments of wages. We're not gonna
hold the IRS accountable. Bow crap, we aren't. You are
gonna put wage garnishments on people's lives, You're gonna put
liens on their homes, You're gonna repossess things. But we
don't even have a right to know where your money's going.
Where the other twenty four twenty four billions going? I

(12:51):
think we do, and maybe Kelly Phillips is laying it
out perfectly here, But as far as I could tell
from this article, they've only identified portions of where this
money is going. And interestingly enough, the IRS has to

(13:19):
pay for workers who are not working through September thirtieth,
twenty thirty, twenty twenty five, termination notices were sent to
probationary employees. In February twenty twenty five. But I guess
there were being lawsuits about this. The US Supreme Court
lived and restriction on issuing or executing RIF notices, and

(13:45):
so some of these people might have had their jobs
still based on the lawsuits. And there's all thing about
IRI spending and making sure that these employees get their pensions,
their benefits, totaling approximately four point nine billion dollars. But

(14:05):
all of this is say, I'm still not convinced we
know where this twenty four point three billion dollars is.
I'm still not convinced we are being told how that
money that they were appropriate? Did you even know? This

(14:27):
is why I started the show back in twenty fourteen.
I saw how many people, whether you're disabled, whether you're
an athlete, a celebrity, a pop star, famous writer, whatever,
we all pay taxes, don't we or we all should
pay taxes, and we all should know where the agency
we're paying into is doing with that money. We should

(14:49):
all know what we're paying into and what our taxes
are going to. We had an overnight in Flushing. Do
you know some of that we had to pay a
tax to the Jacob Javid Center. And I guess that
works because we always want them to be up and running.
We love the Javid Center, we love going off an
axents there at other events. But that's just how many

(15:11):
taxes we have to pay in a day, and how
many agencies we have to pay. But I think we
should ask where the other twenty four point eight billion
dollars is if they haven't spent it in maybe a

(15:32):
timely fashion, and maybe Scott Besson's going to be tasked
with spending more of this money, because if Trump gives
you and Congress gives you all this money, wouldn't we

(15:59):
want to know where it's being told. And by the way,
all of these different enforcements the operations support alone, I
don't know that that's a big allocation. Twenty five point
three billion dollars is the operations. They've only been six
billion of that. So stop hiding if you are the money,

(16:28):
and start telling us what your plans are. I don't
think there's anybody that's telling us, hey, here's where your
fund your funding is that you gave us. I'd like
to know that. And I think this article Inforbes, and

(16:57):
I also urge you to go into a Treasury Inspector
General for tax administration report looking at how much money
has actually been spent as well, and this is interesting.
This was part of the Inflationary Reduction Act of twenty

(17:17):
twenty two, so this they've had this money for a while.
But I'm glad that there's a Treasury Inspector General for this,

(17:39):
because someone needs to hold accountable the IRS, because they're
the ones always holding us accountable. You know, my dad
and I were very involved with taxes. My dad was
an accountant and so I watched them file taxes. I
went with them to file taxes for those clients that

(18:01):
he had, and we'd always go to the post office
before deadline was up. So this kind of story hits
home because I've been involved with that. But also we're taxpayers,
so we want to know how the IRS is spending
its money. And this report was dropped on August first,
twenty twenty five, by the way, and there was no

(18:27):
question costs, meaning nothing was really questioned, by the way.
This Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration report fourteen pages long,

(18:48):
and even here they're showing where they spent. But I
want to know where this money they were given is stored.
And I'm glad someone's looking into this. And there's a

(19:20):
lot of numbers games here, but it's worth seeing if
you want to do a deep dive. And there's a
whole five transformational objectives that the IRS would like to
do in the Strategic Operation Plan, and some of this

(20:06):
is dealing with the IRA, but I'm still looking and
there's still not enough to show where the other money
is and if they have plans to use the other

(20:27):
twenty four billion dollars, and the fact there's so little
spent on each budget is very interesting to me. And

(20:49):
they've contracted services for four point nine billion dollars and
I still say, there's no here's what we're gonna do

(21:11):
with the rest of the money, And that has to
be asked, that has to be looked at because Okay,
so they've told us how they spend thirteen point eight billion,
that still doesn't account for all of the money left

(21:31):
on the table, if you will, And I think we
have to know what their plan is. That's transparency, that's
having one leg up for the taxpayer, if you will,
And maybe we should push for that more as we
go on here in the fiscal year of twenty twenty five,

(21:57):
and I urge Treasure Segory bestn't to release some what
do they call those, not expectations but projections, that's the word.
I'm going on some projected uses of this money. Because

(22:21):
you were given a budget, IRS, and you only use
thirteen eight billion, and that's all that you're being held
accountable for. We want to know where the other twenty
four point eight billion is going, at least I do.
And by the way, if you have any suggestions for them,
you can certainly go to TIGTA dot gov backslash form

(22:46):
backslash suggestions. And maybe we should suggest finding out where
the rest of the money is going, you know, Paul
Harvey said, the rest of the story. I want to
the rest of the appropriation the money and take it
from there. That's how we have one leg up for
the taxpayer. Mhm.