(PM.) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will reportedly be establishing a centralized office in which a majority of the new 87,000 IRS agents will implement new provisions of the tax and spending bill signed by President Joe Biden last week.
The woman who will head the office, Nikole Flax, was among those IRS agents who claimed, along with Lois Lerner, that her computer crashed, erasing correspondence that Congress asked for as they sought to uncover an IRS scheme targeting conservative political groups.
Lerner later admitted that the targeting was wrong, though Congress declined to hold Lerner, or those agents that claimed a computer crash erased documents Congress asked for that could have proved their guilt, in contempt.
In an email message sent on August 19 to all IRS employees, obtained by the Daily Signal, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig wrote: “This is a historic time for the IRS, and we are working to move quickly to begin work on the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law earlier this week.”
“A key part of our efforts will be the creation of a new, centralized office for implementation of all IRS-related provisions. Building off our successes implementing other major legislative bills, the IRA 2022 Transformation & Implementation Office will work across the IRS and oversee our implementation efforts.”
This bill, which passed along party lines, provides $79.6 billion to the IRS, which will largely be used to pay for 87,000 new agents through 2031.
Rettig said that Nikole Flax, deputy commissioner in charge of the Large Business & International Division, will head the establishment of the IRS’ centralized office.
“We have a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the IRS in a way to help taxpayers and fundamentally improve our tax administration work that is vital to the success of our country,” Flax is quoted as saying in Retting’s memo to staff. “This is an exciting opportunity, and we will be moving quickly with our work.”
