Opinion | Trump just fired 6,700 IRS workers in the middle of the tax season. That was a huge mistake.

If you are asking the world’s top CEO to name the best strategy for wasting and balancing books in attack organizations, you’re unlikely to hear an answer: Bring the axe to accounts receivable, the organization responsible for collecting revenues Part.

However, private sector leaders suggested to President Trump’s way of improving the efficiency of the administration by deploying this exact approach by targeting the IRS, which collects nearly all the revenue of the U.S. government, the division of accounts receivable in our country. Last week, the Trump administration began laying off about 6,700 IRS employees, many of whom, if not most, were directly involved in collecting unpaid taxes.

Every year, the government collects much less taxes than the taxes owed. To close the gap of about $700 billion a year, it almost certainly requires maintaining the IRS’ collection capacity. Exhausted, this is with a CEO saying, “We sold a lot of goods and services this year, but let us limit our ability to collect debts.”

Perhaps only the company’s competitors will approve this approach. But we are here. Actively cutting our country’s accounts receivable function will reduce the amount of tax revenue, which in turn will increase our country’s deficit and increase our $36 trillion in debt.

Then why take this path? Let’s be clear: shrinking the IRS won’t reduce your tax obligations. It depends on Congress.

The aggressive reduction in IRS resources will only make our government less efficient and less efficient in collecting taxes levied by Congress. This will shift the burden of government funds to those who overturn taxes For the honest paid person, this will hinder the IRS’ efforts to modernize its customer service and simplify everyone’s tax filing process.

IRS employees are mothers, fathers, people of faith, minor league coaches, community volunteers and neighbors. Thousands of veterans or military family members. More than 98% of the people in cities, suburbs and towns across the country live in Washington, DC, regions, regions, suburbs.

Although many Americans have heard of it, more than 97% of IRS employees do not carry guns. A few are law enforcement officers, aiming to destroy drug traffickers, human traffickers and terrorists. For the vast majority of people who do not have the most danger, the most dangerous thing for them is a calculator.

Like any bureaucracy, the IRS can certainly improve its efficiency and efficiency. As commissioners, each of us works towards this goal in various presidential administrations. We all try to deliver the services taxpayers deserve and reduce the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid. We are all closely following the Taxpayer Act, including the right to privacy and tips, polite, professional assistance, and attempt to do so. None of us claims to have all the right answers, so new perspectives are always welcome. Under the leadership of the Republican and Democratic government and Congress, we recognize and respect elections with consequences.

But regardless of the IRS’ future size and priorities, our country needs a fully functional tax system.

Nearly 200 million Americans are completing tax returns. We urge caution when making significant changes to IRS operations during the filing season. But even after the filing season, we believe – we believe that the successful CEOs across the country would agree – one way to make accounts receivable sharply cuts to increase cost efficiency doesn’t add up.

Lawrence Gibbs is the IRS commissioner appointed by Ronald Reagan; Fred Goldberg, George HW Bush; Bill Clinton Charles Rossotti of Bill Clinton; Mark Everson, George W. Bush; John Koskinen, Barack Obama (Barack Obama); Charles Rettig of Donald Trump; and Daniel Werfel of Joe Biden.

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