Scott Bessent: The IRS Spent $450M on Paper Processing This Year, We Aim to Cut That to $20M by the End of Trump’s Term

EXCERPT:

BESSENT: “In this endeavor, we have successfully cut $2 billion from the IRS IT budget without any operational disruptions. We achieved these cost savings by eliminating, renegotiating and de-scoping wasteful IT and professional services contracts and addressing long-standing inefficiencies such as auto-renewed licenses unused for years. This intervention alone will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. We are also taking steps to the IRS to reduce administrative costs, with a particular focus on paper processing, which has been a long-standing bipartisan goal. Last year, the IRS spent approximately $450 million on paper processing, with nearly 6,500 hundred full-time staff dedicated to the task. Through policy changes and automation, Treasury aims to reduce this expense to under 20 million by the end of President Trump’s second term."