The House Appropriations Committee released a bill to fund IRS, SEC, and certain other regulators in fiscal year 2027, calling for further cuts.
It would slash $1 billion from the IRS, with the deepest cut to enforcement.
The measure, likewise, would impose sharp cuts on the SEC compared to its current-year funding — though not as sharp as those the commission has itself supported under Chairman Paul Atkins — while abandoning some significant riders the appropriations panel had put forth last year. Missing from the bill this year is language targeting the FASB’s budget unless it withdraws its 2023 income tax disclosure rules.
The bill also would prohibit use of funds by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) until an interim rule exempting domestic entities from certain reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act is finalized.
The fiscal ’27 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) bill was posted on April 16, 2026, with a subcommittee markup scheduled a day later. The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the measure next week.
FY 2027 begins in October.
IRS Funding Cuts
Overall, House Republicans are calling for $10.2 billion for the IRS in FY 2027. This exceeds the Trump administration’s request of $9.8 billion, but it falls far short of the $11.2 billion provided in FY 2026. The cuts come as additional IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act has nearly run out, partially owing to a series of claw backs.
Taxpayer Services: The fiscal ’27 bill would maintain the current funding level of nearly $3.04 billion for taxpayer services. The Trump administration had asked for a small boost to $3.13 billion. The bill also maintains the combined $86 million allocations to the Tax Counseling for the Elderly Program, low-income taxpayer clinic grants, and the Community Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Matching Grants Program, and funding for the Taxpayer Advocate Service at $271 million.
Enforcement: House Republicans would cut enforcement funding to $3.6 billion. The fiscal ’26 bill had allocated nearly $5 billion for enforcement, while the Trump administration requested $4.1 billion for FY 2027. The House bill directs $35 million in funding to the Criminal Investigation Division for investigative technology.
Technology and Operations: The fiscal ’27 bill boosts tech and operations funding to $3.6 billion for FY 2027, well over the $3.16 billion provided for FY 2026. The House proposal also exceeds the Trump administration’s request of just $2.6 billion. Of that, the House would set aside $1 million for “research,” and $10 million for equipment acquisition and facility construction, repair, and renovation.
The funding bill also would require the IRS to provide quarterly reports to congressional appropriators, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and the Comptroller General detailing the agency’s tech expenditures and deliverables.
SEC Funding
The House panel proposed to fund the market regulator’s operations at $2.026 billion, down from its current-year appropriation of $2.149 billion.
That proposed funding level, however, is still more generous than the $1.908 billion the commission itself sought from Congress earlier this month. That blueprint reflects an agency whose staff shrank by 18% in fiscal 2025, in large part through a voluntary departure incentive, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
The SEC has indicated it hopes to achieve much of the savings by using anticipated carryover of unobligated prior-year balances and recoveries of prior-year obligations, among other adjustments.
The commission’s funding is deficit neutral, offset by transaction fees assigned to securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and passed down to broker-dealers and then to retail customers.
Corporate Transparency Act
House Republicans also aim to use the fiscal ’27 bill to gain resolution on the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership reporting requirements.
The 2021 law targets the use of anonymous shell companies by criminals and foreign adversaries and requires many U.S. companies to report their beneficial owners to FinCEN. However, the act and implementing reporting rule have faced constitutional challenges, and in March 2025, FinCEN issued an interim rule exempting domestic entities from reporting.
The fiscal ’27 bill would withhold funding for FinCEN until that interim rule is finalized. It also would require Treasury to provide a report to Congress on status of previously submitted beneficial ownership information.
Riders, FASB Pressure
The fiscal ’27 bill contains two IRS riders not in the final fiscal ’26 measure — but that appeared in earlier drafts. The 2027 bill takes aim at Direct File, prohibiting the IRS from using funds to develop or provide a free, public electronic return-filing service option. It also would limit IRS spending on firearms and ammunition above 2022 levels.
In the same FSGG text last year, House appropriators had included language that sought to put budgetary pressure on the FASB if it didn’t withdraw its late 2023 income tax rules, which was stripped out of the final House-Senate compromise.
The FASB published Accounting Standards Update No. 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740) Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, expanding disclosure requirements related to rate reconciliation and income taxes paid, among other amendments. The update was unpopular with the business lobby but supported by investors. The House appropriations Committee, in a report accompanying the bill last year, justified the rider by arguing the FASB had issued an ASU that is “not aligned with the statutory requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.”
That provision targeting the FASB rules was absent from the FSGG document released April 16, as were previous riders targeting SEC cybersecurity incident disclosure rules, among others.
The fiscal ’27 bill instead contains only three proposed restrictions on the SEC’s authority:
- A longstanding rider barring the SEC from using funds to “finalize, issue, or implement any rule, regulation, or order regarding the disclosure of political contributions, contributions to tax exempt organizations, or dues paid to trade associations.”
- A rider targeting the collection of personally identifiable information under the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) project.
- A rider barring the SEC from using funds to implement its now-mothballed climate risk disclosure rules finalized under former Chair Gary Gensler.
Take your tax and accounting research to the next level with Checkpoint Edge and CoCounsel. Get instant access to AI-assisted research, expert-approved answers, and cutting-edge tools like Advisory Maps and State Charts. Try it today and transform the way you work! Subscribe now and discover a smarter way to find answers.
