New IRS funding boosted tax enforcement and improved taxpayer services during the Biden administration

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel testified before Congress in February 2024. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Internal Revenue Service has ramped up its efforts to recover unpaid taxes from millionaires. It collected more than US$1.1 billion from 1,600 wealthy Americans with known but unpaid tax debts in the 2024 fiscal year, up from just $38 million a year earlier.

This boost in tax revenue occurred because of the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. It originally allocated $80 billion in new funding for the IRS over 10 years. Congress later reduced that sum to $60 billion.