Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.

This bill defends American taxpayers against an unchecked, supercharged IRS and prioritizes customer service and tax return processing, two of the agency's most important functions.

Included in the Democrats' reckless Inflation Reduction Act this past summer, the IRS received an additional $80 billion in funding, with over half directed toward enforcement.

What is worse, the Democrats' bill failed to include any safeguards to protect low- and middle-income taxpayers from being unfairly targeted for tax audits.

While the IRS continues to beef up their audit division, the agency still has 3.7 million unprocessed tax returns and a total of 11.1 million returns awaiting action. This is simply unacceptable. The IRS should focus on processing these returns, along with addressing the awful level of customer service currently available to taxpayers.

Law-abiding families and small businesses in Illinois need their tax returns processed and phone calls answered, not more IRS agents knocking on their doors with burdensome audits.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this bill.

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