By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters), – U.S. Treasury Secret Janet Yellen urged Congress on Tuesday to approve $80 Billion in funding for Internal Revenue Service. The money will help reduce a massive backlog of tax returns, and enable it to pursue unpaid taxes totalling $600B.

The IRS is in danger. It’s suffering from massive underinvestment,” Yellen stated to a Senate Finance Committee hearing regarding Treasury’s request for a budget for fiscal 2023.

Yellen claimed that the agency had huge problems. There was a large backlog when it comes to tax returns. They also lack the necessary personnel to perform complex audits on higher-earning taxpayers.

Robert Casey (Democrat) stated that the IRS has almost stopped auditing the tax returns of wealthy business owners. They were entitled to a 20% tax write off on their personal taxes. However, the IRS audits of lower-earning EITC recipients were five times more likely.

Yellen claimed that those figures were alarming and raised concerns about her concern about the tax gap. This was mainly due to wealthy taxpayers with opaque income sources.

Yellen said that IRS resources had been cut so much they have largely decreased the complexity audits for high-income taxpayers. The fact that such large amounts go towards auditing the EITC seems very unfair.”

Yellen stated that Treasury’s request for $80billion in budget over 10 years would enable the IRS to “be able… ensure that people pay the tax that is due.”

She said, “It is very unfair for workers in lower-income households the way things are now.”