Fox spread the falsehood that IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act would mean 87,000 new agents 

Over the course of less than three weeks in August 2022, while the Inflation Reduction Act was moving through Congress, Fox promoted the false claim that the IRA adds 87,000 employees to the IRS at least 203 times. 

Fox personalities and guests continued to promote this false claim well into 2024, with hosts and guests claiming that these fictitious agents are a threat to democracy. Since Fox spread its initial bout of misinformation about this extra IRS funding, some on the right-wing channel have called for eliminating the IRS’ funding for expanded tax enforcement.

The facts are that the law included about $80 billion over the next decade in additional funding for the IRS. A portion of those funds would support tougher tax enforcement targeted at Americans making more than $400,000, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would raise $204 billion over 10 years. It is false to claim that the IRA provides for 87,000 IRS hires, agents or not. The figure comes from a separate Treasury Department proposal from 2021, which predates the IRA, detailing what the IRS could do with additional funding. That proposal included 87,000 new hires across all positions, including secretarial and information technology staff, not strictly auditors or “agents,” to address a major loss of employees to retirement and “simply maintain current levels,” according to PolitiFact.

Republican-led House Appropriations Committee unveiled a bill that cuts IRS enforcement funding by $2 billion

A June 3 House Appropriations Committee bill summary included a note that it funds “$10.119 billion for the IRS, which is $2.2 billion below the FY24 enacted level” and specifically “reduces enforcement funding by $2.0 billion” — meaning more than 90% of the GOP’s proposed IRS funding cuts are aimed at tax enforcement. 

The Hill explained that Republicans have already been able to chip away at the IRS’ expanded funding. According to The Hill, Republican intransigence on IRS tax enforcement funding has resulted in major reductions in previously appropriated funds, and resulted in the IRS spending only “about 5.6 percent of its total IRA funding” and allotting just 1 percent of its new enforcement budget through the end of 2023.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the committee’s chairman, has repeatedly pushed Fox’s misinformation that the IRS would hire 87,000 agents thanks to the IRA’s funding, as has Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Chairman Rep. David Joyce (R-OH). Fox’s misinformation is being used to help fulfill the Republicans’ goal of weakening tax enforcement so that rich tax evaders can continue to get away with cheating on their taxes, which is estimated by the IRS to top $150 billion annually.

As Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell wrote on June 7: “Republicans are trying to make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to shirk their tax obligations.” Rampell further explained that “defunding the IRS not only allows existing cheating and noncompliance to go undetected; it encourages more cheating and noncompliance, and more lost revenue.”

The extra enforcement funding for the IRS targeted at the rich has been a huge success

Before the IRA was even signed into law, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed the IRS to use its new enforcement funding to “focus on high-end noncompliance,” and not Americans earning less than $400,000 per year. 

CNBC reported that the IRS says the extra funding from the IRA has allowed the agency to launch “several programs targeting taxpayers with the most complex returns to root out tax evasion and make sure every taxpayer contributes their fair share.” 

Longtime staff shortages due to inadequate funding caused audits of millionaires to massively drop even as the country added many new millionaires. These programs have already been successful, with more than $480 million recovered by February from millionaires who failed to pay the taxes they owed. 

• CNBC additionally reported that the Treasury Department “estimates greater IRS enforcement will result in an additional $561 billion in tax revenue between 2024 and 2034.”
• The Associated Press reported that according to a new IRS estimate, if enforcement funding previously cut by Republicans is restored, “estimated revenues could reach as much as $851 billion” over the next decade. 
• In its budget request for the 2025 fiscal year, the IRS explained that in fiscal year 2023, it “collected $86 billion through enforcement programs, a return on investment (ROI) of about $7 to $1.” 
• USA Today reported on research showing that audits of wealthy taxpayers has an even higher ROI, with “the potential to deliver $12 in tax revenue for every $1 spent, according to a working paper published in June by the National Bureau of Economic Research.”
• The IRS says cuts to its enforcement funding would hamper this revenue collection and worsen future deficits. IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel warned in congressional testimony that “for every $100 million taken from the IRS, the deficit grows by $600 million over 10 years.”
• The right-leaning Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, citing an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, put it simply: “In other words, the government would lose $2.50 of revenue for every $1 of rescinded IRS funding.”