IRS seeks to hire 3,700 agents to pursue wealthy tax dodgers

The IRS plans to hire 3,700 employees to help fuel its efforts to target large corporations and complex partnerships.

Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act set aside tens of billions of dollars for the IRS to intensify its enforcement of tax cheats. The Friday announcement followed agency news last week that it would open examinations for 75 of the largest U.S. partnerships by the end of September.

The new positions, which will be open in more than 250 locations, will help ramp up the IRS compliance efforts against high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations, and promoters, the IRS said in a press release.

“This next wave of hiring will help the IRS add key talent like tax accountants to help reverse a decade-long decline of audits for the wealthy as well as complex partnerships and corporations,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in the release.

The agency is looking for specialized technical positions that focus on audits, the release said.

In August, Werfel said the IRS was approaching its milestone of increasing its workforce to 90,000 full-time equivalent employees as it battles hiring new employees and attrition.

The recent hiring announcement comes at a time where Werfel is pressing Congress to not make future budget cuts as Republican lawmakers threaten to cut the IRS the agency’s annual appropriation.