Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
IRS Reports 8 Million Unanswered Phone Calls
The Associated Press: Hello? 8M Phone Calls Unanswered As IRS Cut Taxpayer Service
The IRS' overloaded phone system hung up on more than 8 million taxpayers this filing season as the agency cut millions of dollars from taxpayer services to help pay to enforce President Barack Obama's health law. (4/22)
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: GOP Report: IRS Budget Move Plagued Tax-Filing Season
The Internal Revenue Service triggered many of the taxpayer problems that plagued the 2015 filing season by cutting $134 million from customer-service spending to pay for other activities, House Republicans said in a new report on Wednesday. ... At a hearing Wednesday of the House Ways and Means subcommittee that oversees the agency, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen acknowledged the funding shifts, but defended them as a matter of necessity, given the agency’s growing workload and shrinking budget. The IRS had major new responsibilities placed on it for the 2015 filing season, including implementation of the Obama health-care law, but was given about $346 million less for this year, on top of similar cuts in other recent years. (McKinnon, 4/22)
