Majority believe new IRS agents will be deployed to target low and middle income Americans, DC's political opponents: poll

A new poll released on Tuesday has revealed that a majority of Americans believe the purpose of hiring 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents would be either to audit middle and low income Americans, or to target opponents of the Biden administration and DC's political opponents.

The poll, conducted by the Trafalgar Group for the Convention of States Action, asked 1,092 likely general election voters between August 19 and 23, "President Biden just signed the legislation allowing the IRS to hire 87,000 new employees. How do you believe those new employees will be used?"

Overall, 33 percent of likely voters said the purpose was to "audit middle class Americans and small businesses." 31.6 percent said the purpose was to "audit wealthy Americans and large corporations," while 15.9 percent said the purpose was to "target the political opponents of those in power." 3.2 percent said the new hires would target cash, tip, and app paid workers, while 16.4 percent were "not sure."

Split by political party, an overwhelming majority, 49.8 percent, of Democrats said the new hires would target wealthy Americans and large corporations. 14.8 percent said the new hires would target middle income Americans and small businesses, while 10.8 percent said the new hires would target political opponents.

A majority of Republicans, 50.6 percent, said the new hires would target middle income Americans and small business owners. 18.9 percent said the new hires would target political opponents, while 15.9 percent said the new hires would audit the wealthy.

Independent voters were split, with 30.6 percent saying the new agents would audit middle class Americans and small businesses, while 30.9 percent said the new agents would audit wealthy Americans and corporations. 18.1 percent said that the new IRS agents would target political opponents.

The Inflation Reduction Act was signed by Biden on August 16. The $739 billion spending plan includes roughly $78 billion for the IRS, which will be phased in over 10 years, according to Time.

Time reports that these roughly 87,000 new hires would not be IRS agents, and a majority of these positions would fill vacant or soon to be vacant positions, netting the agency roughly 20,000 to 30,000 more employees.