Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via AP
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig appears before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, October 7, 2020, in Washington.
Still in charge at the IRS is Chuck Rettig, a Trump holdover. The man is a piece of work. After becoming commissioner in late 2018, Rettig announced plans to cut the IRS by 1,800 employees. He had previously criticized the service for auditing rich people. And he refused to release Trump’s tax returns to Congress.
Now Rettig is slow-walking one of Biden’s greatest achievements to date, the much-increased Child Tax Credit included in the Biden rescue act. A centerpiece of that program is the plan to get the money distributed monthly. This assures that families get it as they need it, and takes tax preparers out of the lucrative business of lending needy households money at exorbitant interest rates in anticipation of a once-yearly check.
Until last week, Rettig had committed to getting the monthly-payment system online by July, the White House target. The rescue act included a special allocation of $600 million for the IRS to get the program started.
But on March 18, Rettig told a House Ways and Means subcommittee that he wasn’t sure he could meet the deadline. His excuse was that the deadline for filing tax returns has been extended to May 17. “We now have one month less to do the development,” Rettig said. “I don’t have the resources to devote to that portal until filing season ends, which is May 17.”
But that alibi rings hollow. The later tax-filing deadline gives the IRS an additional month to get the Child Tax Credit system up and running before it is swamped with tax returns. For that matter, if the IRS is short-staffed, it’s partly because of Rettig’s own cuts.
Biden will soon be going on the road to extol the benefits of the Child Tax Credit. Low-income parents need the money. If the rollout of the plan is slow-walked by a Trump holdover, both goals are sabotaged.
The IRS commissioner serves at the pleasure of the president. Someone needs to remind Rettig to get with the program or find another job.
