Blog: AIA’s Vision for Protecting Larger Businesses

By Chuck Flint, AIA CEO

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has become an increasingly significant obstacle for businesses. Many companies face targeted audits, inconsistent enforcement, and bureaucratic overreach that discourage growth and investment. The second half of AIA’s Presumption of Rights Agenda addresses these challenges directly, outlining policy recommendations that shield larger businesses from unnecessary and burdensome compliance requirements that limit their ability to compete and contribute to the economy. 

From confusing tax code rules and slow response times to aggressive enforcement and inconsistent guidance, IRS’s unpredictability has left business owners struggling to comply with a system that often works against them. Companies subjected to heightened scrutiny must absorb significant financial and operational costs to defend themselves against questionable IRS challenges, adding $8.8 billion to annual tax compliance costs. 

A key priority for protecting American businesses is to increase predictability in IRS-business interactions. This includes requirements for the agency to provide businesses with clear error explanations, obtain supervisory approvals if presenting penalties, and provide advance compliance guidance. Providing complex organizations with clear opportunities to understand and correct errors before penalties are incurred would promote impartiality through every step of the IRS process and alleviate the stress of open-ended IRS investigations. These reforms would also preemptively curb overreach, significantly reduce arbitrary penalties, and enable businesses to plan and operate with greater confidence, allowing an increase in business revenues by as much as $1.4 trillion per year. 

AIA’s tax protections for large businesses would strengthen confidence and fairness in tax administration by requiring the IRS to evaluate how proposed changes could affect the businesses that drive our economy. AIA remains committed to advocating on behalf of all American taxpayers and businesses of varying sizes, who deserve a stable and lawful tax system that supports their growth rather than punishing it.