If lawmakers take their oath to uphold and protect the law seriously, they must unconditionally support properly funding the IRS. Otherwise, they are, by definition, criminal apologists – or, in the case of the current GOP presidential nominee, criminals themselves.

As part of their Convention in Chicago this week, the Democratic Party released their official party platform. Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination and is now the standard-bearer of its newly outlined policy vision.

The 92-page manifesto is wide-ranging and very comprehensive: in addition to several of the proposals that Harris introduced last week to lower costs for working families, it also includes a number of tax policy changes that Democrats support to make the wealthy and corporations pay their rightful share in taxes. Many of the proposals are in keeping with what the Biden-Harris administration proposed in their budget for fiscal year 2025 – e.g. introducing a billionaire minimum income tax, equalizing tax rates on capital and labor income over $1 million, raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, eliminating the stepped-up basis – but one in particular that caught our eye was an explicit commitment to continue to invest in the IRS. It’s certainly a timely pledge, considering that last week was the second anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – Democrats’ signature tax, climate, and healthcare package that gave $80 billion in new funds to the IRS.

The IRS doesn’t usually get a lot of attention at conventions or on the campaign trail, so for this week’s Closer Look, we’d like to give the IRS the spotlight it deserves, give you a rundown on the good that has come from the IRA, and underscore why it’s so important to keep the momentum going and continue to invest in one of the country’s most important federal agencies.

Before we lay out the good news on all the progress that the IRS has made, let’s start with the bad news. As mentioned, the IRA initially appropriated $80 billion in new funds for the IRS. Unfortunately, as part of the 2023 debt ceiling negotiations, Democrats agreed to Republicans’ demands to rescind $21.4 billion of those funds. (They were originally slated to be spread out over two budget cycles, but earlier this year in negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, Democrats again caved to Republicans’ demands to accelerate the whole funding cut.)

Despite this political hiccup, the IRS has roared back to life with the critical infusion of funds it has managed to retain from the IRA. Here is a rundown of the key achievements that the agency has made over the last two years in catching wealthy and corporate tax cheats, improving taxpayer services, and simplifying tax filing:

• Has collected more than $1 billion in back taxes from 1,600 millionaire tax cheats since the fall of 2023.
• Sent roughly 125,000 notices to people who made more than $400,000 – including 25,000 taxpayers who made more than $1 million – who did not file taxes in at least one year between 2017 and 2022.
• As part of the largest audit in US history, slapped Microsoft with a $29 billion back taxes bill.
• Announced their intention to crack down on corporate jet owners that improperly claim deductions on airplanes that are sometimes used for personal travel.
• As of this past April, hired nearly 7,000 new customer service representatives and, in the 2024 filing season, answered 1 million more calls than the year prior.
• Launched the pilot of a free, direct online e-filing system, Direct File, in twelve states for the 2024 tax filing season, which received overwhelmingly positive reviews from the 140,000 taxpayers who took part. These taxpayers also saved an estimated $5.6 million in tax preparation fees. In May, the IRS announced that it would make Direct File a permanent option for filing federal returns for the 2025 tax season.

You’d think that this would be objectively good news that all Americans would celebrate, but that’s sadly not the case with Republicans. In June, the House Appropriations Committee, led by Republican Chair Tom Cole (OK-04), introduced a bill that would cut IRS funding in 2025 by $2.2 billion and prevent the IRS from implementing its Direct File program. And as part of their “Project 2025” agenda, they have made clear their desire to freeze IRS funding, i.e. rescind all the new funds the agency received through the IRA, and replace many top positions with presidential appointees.

Without question, the IRS needs the funding it received from the IRA to ramp up its enforcement efforts on wealthy tax cheats. High earners typically have varied sources of income and complex returns, as well as armies of tax lawyers who help them seize on every loophole imaginable. Before the IRA, thanks to years of Republican budget cuts, the audit rate on millionaires dropped significantly because the IRS lacked the staff and resources to adequately process their returns. The IRS estimates that the tax gap – the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed – is roughly $700 billion, and no less than $160 billion of that gap comes from the top 1% of earners.

Republicans and Democrats can reasonably disagree about the right way to structure a tax code. But Republicans’ effort to defund the agency is not about disagreements over policy; no, Republicans are trying to hamstring the agency and enable their wealthy donors to avoid paying what they lawfully owe in taxes. We know this because defunding the agency will result in less revenue and thereby raise the deficit, which is ostensibly what Republicans say they want to avoid. And while we’re on the subject, there should also be no question about the need to follow the example of other advanced countries by making tax filing as simple as possible – and free, to boot.

Republicans like to paint themselves as the party of “law and order,” but actions speak louder than words. When they back a movement to defund an agency that holds criminal tax cheats accountable, they should be ignored when they brag about how much they care about upholding the law. There’s a pattern to their rank hypocrisy here. They also formally back a convicted criminal for president who, by the way, is himself under IRS audit for extremely aggressive tax maneuvers that may have cost the U.S. Treasury about $100 million.

Democrats, in contrast, have made their support for the IRS clear and explicitly declared their support for giving the agency the funds it needs to do its job. And it certainly helps that they have decided to nominate a presidential candidate who, as a former prosecutor, has a track record of holding powerful criminal actors accountable.

The Patriotic Millionaires fervently believe that wealthy people like us need to pay more in tax. But in the meantime, lawmakers must ensure wealthy people pay the minimal taxes currently on the books. It’s not that complicated.