Woefully Underfunding the IRS: Consequences? Lower Tax Revenues.

http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2014/07/the_consequences_of_woefully_u.php#.U7VrsqiT5wl

Following up on their efforts to enact dramatic cuts to the IRS's funding last year, Republican members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services voted to slash IRS funding by $341 million, pushing the agency's budget to its lowest level in more than five years. What makes these proposed spending cuts so ridiculous is that every dollar invested in the IRS’s enforcement, modernization and management system reduces the federal budget deficit by $200 and every dollar the IRS “spends for audits, liens and seizing property from tax cheats” garners ten dollars back. From fiscal year 2010 to 2014, the IRS has seen its overall funding cut by as much as 14 percent 

Because the IRS's job is to collect taxes that pay for the rest of the government, it is unique in that cuts to its budget have the effect of substantially increasing the deficit. In fact, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that the 14 percent reduction in enforcement personnel from fiscal year (FY) 2010 to 2012 forced by budget cuts resulted in a loss of $7.6 billion in revenue in FY 2012 alone.