the internal revenue service's $109 billion annual budget is so puny that it's ignoring 60 per cent of phone calls from people who are working on their tax return who have questions in advance of the april 15 filing deadline john koskinen, the agency's commissioner, said tuesday during a speech at the national press club in washington, dc that $346 million in budget cuts this year has caused a noticeable negative impact on taxpayer service' 'this year we were forced to substantially reduce hiring of extra seasonal help we usually bring in during the filing season,' koskinen said 'as a result, the phone level of service is now below 40 per cent' scroll down for video  cry poverty: irs commissioner john koskinen told a national press club audience that $109 billion is too small a budget to guarantee that taxpayers who call with questions hear a voice on the other end of the line  'tis the season: tax returns for 2014 are due on april 15  'that means that six out of every 10 people who call can't reach a customer service representative,' said koskinen 'this truly is an abysmal level of service' koskinen wasn't ceding new ground in americans' hate hate relationship with the irs he was arguing that congress should give his agency more money 'we are aware of taxpayers lining up outside some of our offices many hours before they open,' he said 'you would think, in fact, we must be selling something like the apple watch when you look at the lines this is not a new story this year; it’s just gotten worse' overall, koskinen complained, 'the irs is now the lowest level of funding since 2008,' resulting in 'fewer audits and collection cases' and costing the us treasury at least $2 billion in revenue can't be abolished: presidential canididate sen ted cruz (pictured in new hampshrie on march 27) has campaigned on the idea of doing away with the irs, but koskinen said tuesday that it can't be done – although 'you can call it something other than the irs if that makes you feel better' congress has weighed that number, though, against a much larger sum of money that has gone out the door to tax fraud scammers in 2013, the last year for which reliable numbers are available, the irs paid out $58 billion in fake tax refunds to identity thieves law enforcement crackdowns have taken 'a lot of the amateurs off the street, but we are clearly dealing with organized crime syndicates here and around the world,' the commissioner said and the irs itself gets 'millions of attacks on our system every year,' he griped, due to some software packages the irs has been using since 'when jfk was president' 'about the only good thing you can say about them,' koskinen joked, 'is that the code they use has been out of date for so long that it has the unintended effect of creating problems for any hackers who might try to figure out how the system actually works' the irs has been hammered in recent years after investigations revealed lavish spending on employee conferences for its employees, including one featuring am expensively produced star trek parody video another bone of contention among lawmakers who set koskinen's budget has been the practice, now discontinued, of paying performance bonuses to at least 1,100 agency employees who themselves owe delinquent taxes the irs, the federal government agency americans most love to hate, has had its wings clipped by congress following a series of spending scandals including lavish employee conferences and bonuses paid to tax cheats  rhode island republican rep ander crenshaw, who chairs the congressional appropriations subcommittee that oversees the irs, warned the commissioner this year that the house of representatives nas taken note 'we deliberately lowered the irs funding to a level that will make the irs think twice about what you are doing and why you are doing it,' crenshaw told him, because you don’t have a single dime to spare on anything frivolous or foolhardy or even mediocre' tax returns for individual filers are due in two weeks, but six month extensions are available still, most americans find america's tax laws confusing enough to rely on tax preparation software or professional preparers to help them navigate the waters, leading to frustration and now legendary resentment 'the irs code is longer than the bible,' koskinen said tuesday, 'with none of the good news'
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