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

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

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Well, you know who can't relate to having no espresso.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: My fiance Gabby turns out in her incredible birthday week,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: which included a met game on Wednesday thanks to Vivid
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Seats and we went with her dad and her cousin
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and then of course thanks to Ulie's and thanks to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: so many this week for making her birthday extra special.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: The icing on the cake was actually espresso because yesterday
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we found out Gaby and I did Starbucks shout out
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to Starbucks for this makes forty ounces of cold brew,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: you know, cold cold brew and espresso. Because I didn't
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: know this. You can actually bring home forty ounces of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: americanom espresso. And I'm sure there's others as well, other
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: flavors and whatnot, but things is Starbucks. I mean, that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: just is so convenient and cost saving if you will,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I know you want to sometimes people want to go
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to the store. But if you can bring home that
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Starbucks cold version without any sweetener by the way, or cream,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that's a win win. So fifteen galleries and only fifteen calories,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: so that's pretty cool. And so that really was a
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: top off of Gabby's birthday so far. She was just
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: so excited to get these two different flavors of Starbucks
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: in a bottle, if you will. Now, something that's been
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: bottled up inside of me the last couple of days
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: is this report that the IRS has spent thirteen point
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: nine billion dollars of congressional appropriations that total thirty seven
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: point three billion dollars. Why this is interesting and why
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: it's interesting Forbes came out with this report on Wednesday
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: is because yesterday President Trump went ahead and removed Billy Long,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the IRS Commissioner since waited for it June twenty twenty five.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: That's right, it took just a few months for President
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Trump to be tired of Billy Long and what he
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: was doing at the IRS that as former Senator of Missouri,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Long says, it has been an honor to serve my
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: friend President Trump, and I am excited to take on
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: my new role as the ambassador to Iceland. So nothing
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: says get the hell out of Washington like being named
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: ambassador to Iceland after I guess Trump believes he did
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: not run the Department of the Agency correctly. Now, this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: was a letter to NBC News, and you know who's
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: going to become now the sixth person this year to
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: oversee the agency under Trump the current Treasury Secretary Scott Besson.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So now Treasury Secretary Besson will become the IRS commissioner
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: while looking for a new FED Chair of the Federal Reserve,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: while trying to get deals done with China, who house China, Canada,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and Mexico, as well as other countries dealing with tariffs.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And he's not the only acting I believe Marco Rubio
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: is also wearing many hats besides the Secretary of State.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: So just like the last term, there's a lot of
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: interim ness going on, an acting head chair and acting
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: head agency going on, and it will linger because you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Senate nominees aren't going to confirm anytime soon. As Trump
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: told Schumer to go to Hell, I digress. It's just
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: amazing that this guy, Billy Long was removed three days
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: after it was reported the IRS has only spent thirteen
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: point seven or thirteen point eight billion dollars of the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: thirty seven point six billion dollars which is expected to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: last the agency through twenty thirty one. Now, I originally
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: was thinking, boy, oh boy, how can they only spend
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: thirteen point eight billion in fiscal year of twenty five.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Then you see it's lasting. It's supposed to last through
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty one. But I think this is a big
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: part of this. I think this article and this rerealization
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that hey, you've been appropriated thirty seven point six billion dollars,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and you know, Trump wants the results fast. I think
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he looks at he's the numbers guy. He'll look at
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: these numbers and say, wait a minute, Congress gave you
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: this money. Thirty seven point six billion dollars. Okay, they
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: clawed back forty one point eight billion of the seventy
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: nine point four originally earmarked for you. But I digress.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Thirty seven point six billion dollars. And Kelly Phillips of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Forbes broke it down really well. And here's the one
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: that I think is fascinating. The budget allocates five point
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: four billion dollars for enforcement. Now here's the funny part
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of all this. Of all the different divisions that the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: IRS budget has to take care of, enforcement was the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: most budgeted for, okay, meaning they're gonna pay to make
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: sure we pay our taxes on time. Because these funds
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: are intended to support enforcement activit such as identifying and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: collected old taxes. Providing legal and litigation assistance, and conducting
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: criminal investigations, you know, because Diddy's out there committing tax
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: fraud amongst other things. He wasn't convicted for I digress again.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Five point four billion dollars of this thirty seven point
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: six is allocated for enforcement. And we all want our
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: tax dollars and taxes to be filed without issue, right.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: We want to make tax day. We want we don't
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: want extensions where if we do, we want the extension
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to be hassle free. We want filing our taxes to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: be hassle free. But we all know the IRS deals
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: with backlogs and all this as well. Where that comes
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: in is the two point eight billion dollars for tax
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: pay Services, which are intended to support pre filing assistance
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and education, filing and account services, and taxpayer advocacy. Funds
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: may also be allocated for the tax counseling for the elderly,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: low income taxpayer Clinic grants and the community volunteer income
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: tax Assistance Matching Grants program. So the IRS does help you,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and they're going to get money to do that to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: help you file if you need it. But overall the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: fact they've only spent thirteen point eight billion is maybe
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a cause of concern for Trump. Maybe he wants them
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: to move faster. Maybe he wants the funds set aside
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: for the operations support to cover the agency's regular operating expenses,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: including rent. Yes, the IRS pays rent as well for
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: their offices, facility services, printing, and physical security. Research are
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: getting income statistics as well as information technology development, enhancement, operations, maintenance,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and security. It's almost like these IRS offices are everyday offices.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: So why are they askling us to get there our
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: money in time when they're just like everyday people too.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: We all pay rent. According to the IRS, they pay rent. Also.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: That's besides the point. What I'm fascinated by about all
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of this is they've spent a whopping thirteen point eight
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: billion dollars, but that's not enough. I don't think that's enough.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I think if they're given them money, they are expected
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and I know it's supposed to last them through twenty
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: thirty one, but I'm pretty sure they're expected to use
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: as much as they can this fiscal year, and they haven't,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: And so I'm wondering if there's some kind of misuse
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: President Trump wants to get to the bottom of realize
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: until looking this up, the IRS has already cut twenty
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: five percent of the workforce. There were people leaving the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: workforce interestingly enough, and stats are as shown on this
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: NBC News article, which I will talk about as well.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: But twenty five percent, and I think the thousands that
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: have left the IRS probably during the turnover period as
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: they rate here or Kelly Phillips wrights here for Forbes,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: that twenty three hundred and eighty six employees have separated,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: taken an offer, or use some other incentive to leave.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: The two hundred and ninety four people were fired probably
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: during the Doge run there when they were trying to
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: cut government waste. But all this is say, it still
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't make sense how they've gotten thirty seven point eight
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: billion or so and only thirteen point eight of that
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: has been used. That's where the disconnect is because you
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: would think, and I know that twenty thirty one takes
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a long that's going to be needless been very wisely
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: if you have to last till twenty thirty one. But
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: this is the US government, this is Congress we're talking about.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: They'll give the IRS more money. I think the frustration
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: here has to be because no, really, no one really
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: knows why Trump really removed it. So I'm trying to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: play a guesting game here. It could be the tariffs
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: as well that have been rocking the news cycle. I mean,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: do you see the number of the fifty percent tariffs.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: He's been doing one hundred percent tariffs. It's been ridiculous,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: And maybe he wants a commission that's going to keep
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: up with all of this. But if you don't think
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: he's looking at the numbers and saying, hey, we gave
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you thirty seven point eight billion dollars, where is that money,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: then you are mistaken. He definitely has an eye on
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: how much money the IRS has gotten or all these
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: agency have gotten. You see him with Fed Chair Powell
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: about the building, the building extension and how much that
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: was gonna be at the Fed Reserve. He knows what
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: agencies are getting what money. He's not a stupid person.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: He might talk stupid sometimes, but he doesn't think stupid
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: most of the time, especially when it comes to finances.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: So if you think he's not watching this and saying, hey,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: we gave you thirty seven point six billion dollars and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: you've only is thirteen point eight of that? Where's the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: other twenty four billion dollars? Where is that saved up?
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: What are you doing with that money? We want to know.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: We want to know, and I don't think every American
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: should want to know where the agency they're supposed to
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: pay into every April fifteenth, or be worried about lians
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: on their houses or garnishments of wages. We're not gonna
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: hold the IRS accountable. Bow crap, we aren't. You are
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: gonna put wage garnishments on people's lives, You're gonna put
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: liens on their homes, You're gonna repossess things. But we
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: don't even have a right to know where your money's going.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Where the other twenty four twenty four billions going? I
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: think we do, and maybe Kelly Phillips is laying it
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: out perfectly here, But as far as I could tell
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: from this article, they've only identified portions of where this
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: money is going. And interestingly enough, the IRS has to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: pay for workers who are not working through September thirtieth,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty, twenty twenty five, termination notices were sent to
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: probationary employees. In February twenty twenty five. But I guess
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: there were being lawsuits about this. The US Supreme Court
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: lived and restriction on issuing or executing RIF notices, and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: so some of these people might have had their jobs
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: still based on the lawsuits. And there's all thing about
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: IRI spending and making sure that these employees get their pensions,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: their benefits, totaling approximately four point nine billion dollars. But
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: all of this is say, I'm still not convinced we
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: know where this twenty four point three billion dollars is.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I'm still not convinced we are being told how that
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: money that they were appropriate? Did you even know? This
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: is why I started the show back in twenty fourteen.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I saw how many people, whether you're disabled, whether you're
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: an athlete, a celebrity, a pop star, famous writer, whatever,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: we all pay taxes, don't we or we all should
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: pay taxes, and we all should know where the agency
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: we're paying into is doing with that money. We should
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: all know what we're paying into and what our taxes
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: are going to. We had an overnight in Flushing. Do
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you know some of that we had to pay a
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: tax to the Jacob Javid Center. And I guess that
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: works because we always want them to be up and running.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: We love the Javid Center, we love going off an
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: axents there at other events. But that's just how many
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: taxes we have to pay in a day, and how
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: many agencies we have to pay. But I think we
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: should ask where the other twenty four point eight billion
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: dollars is if they haven't spent it in maybe a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: timely fashion, and maybe Scott Besson's going to be tasked
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: with spending more of this money, because if Trump gives
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you and Congress gives you all this money, wouldn't we
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: want to know where it's being told. And by the way,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: all of these different enforcements the operations support alone, I
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: don't know that that's a big allocation. Twenty five point
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: three billion dollars is the operations. They've only been six
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: billion of that. So stop hiding if you are the money,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and start telling us what your plans are. I don't
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: think there's anybody that's telling us, hey, here's where your
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: fund your funding is that you gave us. I'd like
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: to know that. And I think this article Inforbes, and
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I also urge you to go into a Treasury Inspector
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: General for tax administration report looking at how much money
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: has actually been spent as well, and this is interesting.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: This was part of the Inflationary Reduction Act of twenty
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: twenty two, so this they've had this money for a while.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: But I'm glad that there's a Treasury Inspector General for this,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: because someone needs to hold accountable the IRS, because they're
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the ones always holding us accountable. You know, my dad
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and I were very involved with taxes. My dad was
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: an accountant and so I watched them file taxes. I
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: went with them to file taxes for those clients that
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: he had, and we'd always go to the post office
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: before deadline was up. So this kind of story hits
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: home because I've been involved with that. But also we're taxpayers,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: so we want to know how the IRS is spending
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: its money. And this report was dropped on August first,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, by the way, and there was no
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: question costs, meaning nothing was really questioned, by the way.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: This Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration report fourteen pages long,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and even here they're showing where they spent. But I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: want to know where this money they were given is stored.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: And I'm glad someone's looking into this. And there's a
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: lot of numbers games here, but it's worth seeing if
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you want to do a deep dive. And there's a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: whole five transformational objectives that the IRS would like to
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: do in the Strategic Operation Plan, and some of this
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: is dealing with the IRA, but I'm still looking and
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: there's still not enough to show where the other money
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: is and if they have plans to use the other
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: twenty four billion dollars, and the fact there's so little
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: spent on each budget is very interesting to me. And
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: they've contracted services for four point nine billion dollars and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I still say, there's no here's what we're gonna do
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: with the rest of the money, And that has to
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: be asked, that has to be looked at because Okay,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: so they've told us how they spend thirteen point eight billion,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: that still doesn't account for all of the money left
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: on the table, if you will, And I think we
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: have to know what their plan is. That's transparency, that's
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: having one leg up for the taxpayer, if you will,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: And maybe we should push for that more as we
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: go on here in the fiscal year of twenty twenty five,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and I urge Treasure Segory bestn't to release some what
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: do they call those, not expectations but projections, that's the word.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going on some projected uses of this money. Because
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: you were given a budget, IRS, and you only use
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: thirteen eight billion, and that's all that you're being held
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: accountable for. We want to know where the other twenty
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: four point eight billion is going, at least I do.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And by the way, if you have any suggestions for them,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you can certainly go to TIGTA dot gov backslash form
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: backslash suggestions. And maybe we should suggest finding out where
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the rest of the money is going, you know, Paul
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Harvey said, the rest of the story. I want to
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the rest of the appropriation the money and take it
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: from there. That's how we have one leg up for
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the taxpayer. Mhm.