WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today cosponsored legislation that would help protect taxpayers from being strong armed into accepting settlements under the threat of financial penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS Accountability and Taxpayer Protection Act (S.1249) was introduced by U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as a counterbalance to the new enforcement authorities given to the IRS by the Biden administration and congressional Democrats.

“We all have reasons to be suspicious of promises from the administration that the hiring of 87,000 additional IRS agents won’t affect the vast majority of American taxpayers.  The IRS is known to go after regular workers and using the threat of financial penalties to force them into settling legitimate disputes over their taxes,” Hyde-Smith said.  

“This bill will strengthen taxpayer protections and make the IRS more accountable to taxpayers, which is especially important as it begins to hire tens of thousands of new auditors,” the Senator added.

S.1249 seeks to strengthen the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act, which was enacted to restrict the IRS from using penalties as a bargaining chip to reach resolutions more favorable to the IRS than it might have achieved without the threat of penalties.  The bill would replace language in the 1998 law with a clear rule that requires the IRS to verify penalties for accuracy rather than a way to manipulate taxpayers to settle.

Hyde-Smith voted against the intentionally mistitled “Inflation Reduction Act” that, among other things, gives the IRS $80 billion to make it one of the largest federal agencies ever with 87,000 additional IRS agents to audit Americans to find revenue to pay for the law’s climate change programs.  Approximately $45 billion of the new IRS funding is intended for tax enforcement.

Americans for Tax Reform and the National Taxpayers Union endorse this legislation