Trump Administration Needs to Shut Down Biden's IRS Pass-Through Compliance Unit for Good

By Kevin Cooper

2024 was a Master class in the damage an unchecked federal bureaucracy can do. In case after case, we saw federal prosecutors target Republican leaders in an effort to deny them an electoral victory.

Similarly, under the Obama Administration in the two years between April 2010 and April 2012, the IRS placed on hold the processing of applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exemption status received from organizations with "Tea Party", "patriots", or "9/12" in their names.

We’ve seen disdain for small businesses in our country through rhetoric like “If you've got a business, you didn't build that.”

Small businesses, partnerships, and LLCs are the backbone of our economy. They account for 99.9% of all businesses. As such, for our economy to flourish we must protect our small businesses.

As one of Joe Biden’s final acts as President, his IRS issued a new regulation retooling the tax code. It’s backed up by a legion of IRS agents housed in a field operations unit - all funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. If that law sounds familiar, it’s because it showered the IRS with billions in cash and recklessly ran up government debt. Part of this IRS retooling, Biden’s IRS launched a new pass-through field operations unit charged with conducting audits on pass-through entities—like partnerships, S-corporations, and trusts—and their “basis-shifting” transactions

This new Biden IRS enforcement unit unfairly targets American businesses with excessive audit scrutiny and penalties. This is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars and U.S. government resources but also unlawful. As David Williams, President of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, highlighted… “These regulations disregard the plain meaning of the tax laws passed by the Congress.” Williams also shed light on the politicized bias this regulation created, which allowed business partnerships to be subjectively attacked.

In Donald Trump’s Golden Age of America, we must be vigilant of wastefully spending our money and an out of control bureaucracy that is poised to target and intimidate taxpayers.

Even worse, having ambiguity and conflicts in our tax code can depress the hiring of workers and stifle new investment, which will ultimately hurt our economy.

Voters elected President Trump and put Republicans in charge of Congress to finally fix Washington and end government overreach and the rampant waste in Washington.

One of President Trump’s first acts as president tasked Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash $2 trillion in government spending and streamline the workforce. The DOGE is already shining a light on how federal dollars were being spent on causes that have nothing to do with fighting inflation or growing our economy, like $59 million spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to house illegal immigrants in New York City. This was a standard practice under Biden’s administration even though the agency was strapped for cash to respond to hurricanes.

Fortunately, our Florida GOP leaders are working hard to address this. Representative Aaron Bean is making waves as a leader of the Congressional DOGE Caucus working to make Washington‘s bureaucracy accountable. And Republicans like Senator Rick Scott and Representative Vern Buchanan have already called out how the IRS is being weaponized to terrorize Americans.

Most recently, Rep. Greg Steube exposed the IRS for appearing to use tactics to intimidate a taxpayer by showing up to their home unannounced. The individual, a journalist reporting on social media censorship, was scheduled to testify the same day before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

To keep our economy strong, our tax code fair, and end the mistreatment of our citizens democrats should work with President Trump and zero out this abusive behavior. That should include protecting business partnerships that follow the law, pay their taxes , and are the backbone of our economy. I urge our members of Congress including Representatives Bean and Steube to ask the Trump Administration to shut down the Pass-Through Compliance Unit that was started i by the Biden Administration.

Kevin Cooper, Chairman Republican Party of Miami Dade