Washington Post Op-Ed:  Elon Musk’s Worst Suggestion So Far: ‘Delete’ the IRS?, by Natasha Sarin (Yale; Google Scholar):

Elon Musk recently polled his X followers with a simple question: Should the IRS’s funding be increased, the same, decreased or “deleted.” Regrettably, the vast majority picked the last option.

The IRS just said it wants $20B more money.

Do you think it’s budget should be:

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024

Abolishing the IRS might sound appealing, especially given that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the agency — former congressman Billy Long of Missouri — previously sponsored legislation that would do just that. But it’s extremely wrongheaded. Here’s why.

The IRS collects 95 percent of federal revenue. A functioning IRS is critical to the U.S. government. Investing in and improving the agency would make government work better for the American people. Kneecapping it will do the opposite.

I agree with Musk that the IRS needs reform. The agency operates on processes that date back to World War II. When taxpayers file their returns on paper, they are hand-transcribed. Online offerings are so limited that often people have no capacity to resolve their tax issues electronically, so they are forced to mail or fax paper documents to the agency or visit an office in-person.

Even worse, the IRS fails to collect more than $600 billion of taxes due each year. Trump and Musk think that U.S. taxes should be lower (and here, I strongly disagree). But even if they are correct, it surely cannot be that the best way to deliver tax cuts to the American people is to offer them only to those who break the law and evade their tax obligations. …

Investing in the IRS pays off. Every dollar of IRS funding typically generates several dollars of additional revenue because it allows the IRS to process taxes faster and go after tax cheats. Recent research estimates that the returns to investing in high-end enforcement activities to go after uncollected taxes could generate as much as $12 for every $1 invested. That’s real money that can be used for defense, innovation and more.

Musk is focused on improving governmental efficiency. He is right to say that requires reforming the IRS. But the agency’s budget should be augmented, not deleted.

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