Treasury requests budget raise for IRS

WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said Thursday most of his department's budget increase request for next year will be going to the Internal Revenue Service.

Testifying before the House appropriations committee, Snow said Treasury needs a budget of $11.6 billion for the 2006 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, up 7.8 percent from a year ago.

"The increase will provide additional resources to examine more tax returns, collect past due taxes, and investigate cases of tax evasion," Snow said.

For the current fiscal year, Congress approved IRS spending of $6.39 billion, but President Bush has proposed that number to be increased by $500 million in the upcoming fiscal year.