The IRS needs to be able to do an effective job of tax collection and enforcement of the tax code. Since the current tax code is the size of a stack of Manhattan Phone Books, that means the IRS needs manpower, and plenty of it, to do it's job. The fact that the audit staff is under-manned should be of concern to us all.
If there is no effective audit and enforcement procedure, more and more people will attempt to skirt the law, and succeed. It will get to the point that only the virtuous and the fearful pay taxes. Since the Federal Leviathan is not about to shrink, that means that the suckers who do pay their taxes will have to pay more to keep the whole clanking, wheezing machine chugging along. The money has to come from somewhere!
Yes, it would be better if the tax code was simpler and easier to enforce. It would be even better if the FedGov made do with a lot less money. But neither of these things is going to happen anytime soon. So in the mean time, it is the responsibility of the IRS to make the current system work.
The law already exempts something like half the adult population from the income tax. Add to that an increasing number of cheaters, and you reach a point where tax policy is no longer the concern of the average voter. At that point, ever increasing tax rates are the inevitable result. The minority that pays taxes will be outvoted on every spending and taxing proposal by the majority that does not.
Like it or not, we need the IRS.
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