Washington, D.C.– Executive Director Chad Hooper of the Professional Managers Association (PMA)–formed in 1981 by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Managers as a national membership association representing the interests of professional managers, management officials and non-bargaining unit employees in the federal government and within the IRS–released the following statement regarding Tax Day 2023:
“The Internal Revenue Service is celebrating the strongest tax season in a very, very long time. Wait times are down. Service levels are up. And return processing is only getting faster.1 This season is a clear demonstration of how an agency can turn itself around with investment and attention from Congress. After nearly a decade of budget cuts, a global pandemic, and many years of disruptive mid-season tax changes, this tax season shows what the IRS can achieve with the resources and space to do its job,” Hooper began.
“Congress must continue to support the IRS with adequate annual funding to ensure Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds can be concentrated on the long-term modernization and reform efforts underway at the IRS. Even with this year’s successes, the IRS has a long way to go to modernize the longest operating IT system in the federal government and integrate the Service’s more than 60 overlapping taxpayer databases. We welcome robust congressional oversight to ensure the Service remains on track, but this oversight should be accompanied with resources to ensure the IRS’s continued improvement. If this year is a signal of what is to come, the IRS has a bright future ahead. IRS employees have been eager to provide better service to the American people and this year, they finally had the capacity to start doing so. IRS employees should be proud of the progress they have made,” Hooper concluded.
