As it becomes increasingly difficult to balance the federal budget, it will clearly take a combination of ideas to make ends meet.

One obvious solution is to make sure we are collecting the taxes already on the books.

Tax evasion on a massive scale has emerged as one of the key components of the Greek debt crisis. Flagrant tax evasion has simply become embedded in Greek culture.

Although the problem may be less serious in the United States, we would be naive to think everyone here is voluntarily reporting their income and paying the required taxes.

While the enforcement arm of the Internal Revenue Service isn’t the most popular agency in government, it is the honest taxpayer’s friend. Every taxpayer dollar that goes unpaid must be made up by somebody else or, more likely, added to our deficit problem.

Yet Congress continues to cut what can best be likened to the government’s accounts receivable department.

As Nina Olsen, the independent taxpayer advocate within the IRS, has pointed out, “If the federal government were a private company, its management would fund the accounts receivable department at a level that it believed would maximize the company’s bottom line.”

Makes sense, but that is not happening.

The IRS estimates that individuals and companies underpaid their taxes in 2006, the most recent year available, by $385 billion. Meanwhile, federal deficits have regularly exceeded $1 trillion annually.

And, tax noncompliance is increasing, as is the complexity of the code. Congress has made more than 4,000 changes to the code over the past 10 years, and it made 579 in 2010 alone.

While collecting an additional $385 billion wouldn’t solve our deficit problem, collecting even half of that would be a significant improvement.

Yet, Congress this year has budgeted $300 million less than last year for the IRS, a 2.5 percent budget cut, including $193 million less for enforcement.

That’s crazy, especially when you consider that each dollar spent on enforcement brings in $4 to $5 in additional revenue.

Meaning, of course, that this alleged “cut” was more than offset by lost revenue.

It’s difficult to understand why Congress would do this. Is it a back-door tax cut for people who cheat on their taxes? Is Congress being lobbied by corporations and individuals trying to avoid audits?

That’s extremely cynical to think, yet if any branch of government deserves to be regarded with cynicism and suspicion, it is our Congress.

Corporations and high-wealth individuals, meanwhile, are hiring legions of highly paid lawyers and consultants to figure out complex schemes to avoid taxes.

The other side-effect of this phony cut is to limit the IRS’ ability to respond to questions and issue advice to taxpayers who are trying to honestly prepare their taxes.

Mitt Romney recently repeated an old truism: Nobody should have to pay a dollar more in taxes than what they owe.

Good enough. But Congress has an obligation to make sure no one is paying a dollar less.

[email protected]

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.