 So today, we're going to talk about the 80,000, 87,000 new IRS agents that are being hired as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, it's a funny name, but the Inflation Reduction Act given that it increases inflation, you know, it's like OLS 1984 reduction means the exact opposite of what it's supposed to mean. As a consequence of the Inflation Reduction Act, there is a lot of kind of hysteria, there's a lot of panic, there's a lot of angst around this idea that the IRS is not going to have 87,000 new IRS agents, they're coming down on us and we should barricade our doors and get our guns because they're coming at us with guns, you know, and on and on and on. There's a lot of panic out there from journalists, politicians, Twitter, the media and everything like that. So we'll talk about it, try to bring some objectivity to this number that has to do with the IRS agents. And then the IRS story is, you know, I think I talked about it a little bit when I talked about the Inflation Reduction Act. Part of the Inflation Reduction Act is $80 billion, $80 billion with a B dollars to the IRS. And many, many conservatives, many people in the right have plucked out the number of 87,000 new IRS employees that are going to be hired. And that this is going to be massive, massive new audits on Americans, massive intrusion on us. This is doubling the size, more than doubling the size of the IRS in terms of people. And this is just, it's coming, right? And expect, you know, start worrying. You should start really thinking about this. You might get out in the next year. This is imminent. This is, so I want to calm you down because while I hate the idea, hate the idea, despise the idea that the IRS is getting $1 more. I mean, I'd like to see the IRS shrinking, not expanding. And while I hate the idea that the IRS hires anybody, it's not as bad as it's being made out to be. Don't panic. The world is not going to come to an end. So let's, let's start with the fact that one, the $80 billion that the IRS is going to get is spread over 10 years. So this is dollars going into the IRS in chunks over 10 years. So it's not that it gets it tomorrow. And it's not that it can go out and hire people tomorrow. Even if it got the money tomorrow, even if it tried to hire 80,000 people tomorrow, where they're going to find them? There are not 80,000 people waiting there just to get IRS jobs. Indeed, right now, there's a shortage of CPAs. There's a shortage of accountants, the private accounting firms are paying huge salaries to attract new graduates out of, out of college. The IRS can't afford people. Part of the, part of the reason they're getting this money is, we'll get to it. They can't hire people because they can pay them enough. So they're going to have to boost wages. And who wants to work for the IRS? Most of the good people are going to go to work for your accountant. One of the reasons not to worry about the more hires in the IRS is the people that hire a pretty competent, they don't know anything. They're not very good at auditing. So I just, I just wouldn't worry even if they were, but they can't hire 80,000 people tomorrow. There's no way. Even if they were going to hire 80,000 and they're not, it would take them 10 years to hire them. They're only getting the money over 10 years. And it would take them, I mean, even hiring 8,000 people a year for the IRS. I mean, remember, IRS is a government bureaucracy. It would take them forever to do that. Think of just all the kind of affirmative action stuff they would have to go through. It's, it's just, there's just no employees out there to do it. Now, and to that, the fact that they're not actually hiring 80,000 people to go and audit you. They're not even hiring 80,000. The number's probably closer to 60,000. But why are they hiring 60,000? It's not 60,000 in addition to what they have today. It turns out that half of the people working for the IRS today, and I think that number's about 80,000 existing people working at the IRS today, in all kinds of jobs, half of the people working for the IRS today are about to retire. So over the next 10 years, half of the employees at the IRS are going to retire. So a big chunk of these new employees are just replacing existing employees, just replacing existing employees. So another reason not to work. Additionally, the people that the IRS is likely to hire, are they going to hire some auditors, possibly to replace the people who are retiring and to increase the number of auditors that they have. But a lot of the people are going to hire. If nothing do with auditing, they have to do with IT. The IRS has primitive computer systems, thanks God, which is good, right? So they're slow, they're inefficient, they're going to hire IT people, they're going to hire programmers. They want to improve their IT infrastructure and they want to improve customer service. Do you know that 90% of all telephone calls, 90, 90, I think it's actually 89, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. 89% of all phone calls into the IRS are not answered, just not answered. And I was talking to an accountant, when was it? A couple of days ago, having dinner on one of the guys there was an accountant, a tax accountant, and he says, he often calls the IRS and gets somebody on the phone and asks a complex question, a real complex question. He's really asking a question for Klein, asking a question and the guy goes, let me see, let me ask and hangs up. And they hang up because they don't know the answer because they're not sophisticated. So the idea is the IRS wants to improve customer service, which is to get more people on the phone to hang up on you when they can't answer the question. So they'll be having a lot of IT people. I think, if you think about the $80 billion that are going, who's going to get this money? Who's going to benefit from this? Well, some people will be hired, so they're going to get some people hired. But most of the money is going to go to contractors. Most of the money is going to go to government contractors. It's going to go to people who, DC is booming, DC always is booming. I was in DC in the summer, construction everywhere, building everywhere, new condos, new office buildings, everything booming. Northern Virginia is booming, Maryland is booming. Anybody associated with government is booming. Why? Because they're always spending more money. There's always bigger budgets and they're always allocating that to contractors who live in the DC, work in DC, because that's the way they provide services. Most of this is going to go to outside contractors, outside people. I mean, it's corrupt. It's insane. They're going to charge them. What is it? $50,000 for a hammer or a toilet or whatever. Typical government rates, government fees. They're going to, but this is not going to go directly to the bottom line to audit this to go after you. So while it's never good that the government is spending more money, and it's never good that that money is spent on the IRS, and it's not good that they improve their computer systems and they get faster and more efficient, I'm not too worried, partially because how much faster in 10 years over 10 years, how inefficient is this going to be? How good of a program is that they're going to get? It's just not going to happen like that. It's not going to happen quickly. And it's not in, I don't think, going to be particularly devastating. So I say it's horrible, complain about it, bitch about it, do everything, but don't panic and don't be afraid. And this is generally my advice, right, on most political things. But I find that every time there's something in the news, everybody flips out and goes crazy. And this is the end of the world. And including the Republicans who have every incentive to say this about the Biden administration and to let you know how terrible this is and how awful this is. And again, this is the end of the world. It's not, it's just not, everything's going to be okay. So it's just one more gummin' boondoggle, one more gummin' disaster. But in terms of actual net increases to IRS employment, yeah, but it's nowhere near the numbers that some people are putting out there. The IRS is going to get bigger, which means, in my view, more bureaucratic. The IRS will have a lot of investment in computers and software and stuff like that, which will take forever and be inefficient. But overall, is the IRS going to get more sophisticated? Probably not. Is the IRS going to get more efficient? Probably not. And is the IRS going to have massive new resources to go after you, me? Probably not. Maybe at the margin, but probably not. Thank you for listening or watching The Iran Brook Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com. I go to Patreon, subscribe star locals, and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see The Iran Book Show grow, please consider sharing our content and, of course, subscribe. 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