it was a tough tax season for the internal revenue service, but gop lawmakers in congress says the agency only has itself to blame.









last month, irs commissioner john koskinen said that years of budget cuts and staffing losses had led to <u+201c>abysmal<u+201d> customer service from his agency. but republicans on the house ways and means committee say<u+00a0>the agency<u+2019>s financial problems stem from<u+00a0>bad budgeting decisions, employee bonuses, and overspending on administrative costs.









<u+201c>the irs<u+2019>s spending decisions have real consequences for taxpayers,<u+201d> the gop representatives said in a report on wednesday. <u+201c>wasteful spending and failure to prioritize taxpayer assistance led to millions of calls going unanswered for filing season 2015.<u+201d>









[in the irs help line, dejection is standard]









committee republicans found that the irs spent $60 million on employee bonuses in 2014, an amount they said could have been used to field over 7 million customer calls. the report also points to a $134 million cut in user fees allocated to customer support as another area where the irs could have better utilized its already tight budget.









there is no denying that the agency budget has shrunk<u+00a0>lately, with congress cutting the irs budget by more than $1 billion over the past five years. but the report found that the agency has<u+00a0>reduced<u+00a0>spending on<u+00a0>customer service.









the irs has the authority to decide how it spends some revenue from user fees that the agency collects. the amount of discretionary funds available to the irs increased from $310 million in 2010 to $481 million in fiscal year 2015, but total funding for taxpayer assistance fell by 6 percent, according to the report.









in 2011, the agency spent $129 million on taxpayer services and $79 million on operations support. in 2015, taxpayer services funding was scheduled to drop to $49 million while support funds were set for $411 million. committee republicans argued that that shift in priorities could have been avoided.









koskinen predicted the tax year would be difficult for taxpayers and irs employees alike as early as january, when he wrote a bleak warning letter<u+00a0>to agency employees.









<u+201c>this year we are looking at a situation where realistically we have no choice but to do less with less,<u+201d> he wrote.









the result was a tax season riddled with confusion and long lines like those revealed in a<u+00a0>washington post article this month.









koskinen is scheduled to testify before the ways and means committee on wednesday about<u+00a0>the 2015 tax filing season and irs operations.
house republicans say irs should blame itself for rough tax season
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