If I was Commissioner of the IRS, how would I task that many new agents. My first step would be to task them on processing the backlog of un processed tax returns. My second step would be to institute early intervention into payroll tax deficiencies. Because of the shortfall of agents, many employers fall behind by 9-12 months in their employment tax payments. These can total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. These small businesses many are corporations or limited liability companies are owned by folks who are not sophisticated in finance. They figure that the IRS can wait, but the landlord can’t. There is one huge nuclear bomb difference. You can walk away from a lease guarantee in bankruptcy or a guaranteed loan, but not a payroll tax debt. That sticks with the owner for ten years as well as anyone who signed a check when the payroll taxes were not being paid. Now they might have a defense that it wasn’t willful but that requires proving a negative. So, I hope that many of the new agents will jump on these payroll tax deficits in the first quarter they are behind. If they do, they will save lots of businesspeople from committing financial ruin and actually perform a service.