President Trump has released his 53-page “America First, A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again” a wish list of spending requests for Congress and some basic economic projections in which he lays out his plans for boosting military spending, and cutting foreign aid and an array of domestic programs. Among those cuts is a funding reduction of $239 million for IRS.

The President's 2018 Budget requests $12.1 billion in discretionary resources for the Department of the Treasury's domestic programs, a $519 million (or 4.1%) decrease from the 2017 annualized Continuing Resolution (CR) level. This program level excludes mandatory spending changes involving the Treasury Forfeiture Fund.

It promises to shrink the Federal workforce and increase its efficiency by redirecting resources away from duplicative policy offices to staff that manage the country's finances. Further, the Budget states that it will empower the Treasury Secretary, as Chairperson of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, to end taxpayer bailouts and foster economic growth by advancing financial regulatory reforms that promote market discipline and ensure the accountability of financial regulators.

IRS funding. The President's 2018 Treasury budget includes a $239 million funding reduction from the 2017 annualized CR level for IRS. It asserts that diverting resources from antiquated operations that are still reliant on paper-based review in the era of electronic tax filing would achieve significant savings.

The 2018 Budget “preserves key operations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure that the IRS could continue to combat identity theft, prevent fraud, and reduce the deficit through the effective enforcement and administration of tax laws.”

NO SURPRISE HERE!