Lawrence Gibbs, former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner, discussed the impact of the IRS receiving $45.6 billion in enforcement funding as part of a nearly $80 billion funding increase included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law on August 16 by President Biden, in Law360 Tax Authority. "As you get new funding to hire more auditors, instead of revenue going up it often goes down" initially, according to Gibbs. "You're taking experienced agents out of the line working to train new agents and that's an extremely important task."  However, such training likely will take years, Gibbs noted. In the past the IRS has experimented with less intensive forms of training, but without success. "New agents need to be able to ask questions, they need hands-on training," Gibbs said. "You don't want untrained auditors out there hassling the American public. There are few things worse than an untrained IRS employee. They can do an awful lot of damage."