Open Recommendations

The Chief, Taxpayer Services should provide explicit notifications on the IRS website of closed sites that were previously listed and scheduled to be open.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should ensure that collaborative teams have measurable outcomes to track program effectiveness.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should develop and implement a quality review process for collaborative teams.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should develop and implement a method to monitor collaborative teams through a dashboard view.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should develop guidance to ensure consistent executive oversight for collaborative teams.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should develop additional performance measures to assess whether systemic advocacy projects are effective in addressing systemic issues.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should ensure that management addresses staffing issues and timely reassigns inventory when delays are identified in the SAMS issue review.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should analyze trends in issues raised in SAMS to help ensure that emerging issues are identified and addressed before they become more widespread.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should revise guidance to contain clear criteria for the SIRE project manager to identify emerging systemic issues submitted to SAMS, including developing a method to track and monitor.

The TAS, Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, should develop a system to track and monitor systemic issues closed when additional monitoring is needed to ensure that the issue is addressed.

In our February 2024 alert, we recommended that the Director, Field Assistance, take actions to address the issues we identified regarding the hours of operation, incorrect addresses, and current operational status to ensure that taxpayers have the most accurate and up-to-date information available. Additionally, immediate action should be taken to ensure that TAC facilities that are open for extended hours are accessible to taxpayers and that the hours posted at the facility are accurate and observed.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should develop processes and procedures to ensure that the hours of operation are accurately posted at all TAC locations and consistent with what is reflected on the IRS website. These processes and procedures should include verification steps to be taken as part of the IRS’s annual filing season readiness confirmation process.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should perform a cost-benefit analysis to ensure a business need, including a benefit to the taxpaying public, continues to exist in providing local TAC telephone lines.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should develop processes and procedures to ensure the accuracy and consistency of recorded messages while local telephone lines continue to be in place. These processes and procedures should include verification steps to be taken as part of the IRS’s annual filing season readiness confirmation processes.

The National Taxpayer Advocate should add an attestation on forms where data about taxpayers whose income exceeds the 250 percent of the poverty level limitation is reported, affirming accuracy, and acknowledging the penalty for making a false statement.

The National Taxpayer Advocate should coordinate with the Treasury Department to request that LITC grant requirements be included within the Treasury Department’s Compliance Supplement to ensure that grant recipients are abiding by the rules in I.R.C. § 7526.

The National Taxpayer Advocate should develop a centralized system to administer the Program Office’s LITC grant management processes and procedures.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should develop standard operating procedures for sensitive document safeguarding and destruction to ensure uniformity and consistency across all IRS facilities.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should immediately evaluate the 110 facilities not covered under the national or local contracts to ensure that the IRS has sensitive document safeguarding and destruction procedures in place that comply with NIST guidelines.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should ensure that all bins that do not meet requirements are replaced at the Kansas City, Missouri, IRS facility.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should develop processes and procedures to periodically inspect bins to identify damaged and altered bins and work with local subcontractors to replace the bins at all IRS facilities.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should ensure that all bins at every IRS facility are labeled properly to instruct employees to only discard sensitive documents in locked bins solely used for destruction purposes.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should perform annual inspections of all facilities used by subcontractors for sensitive document destruction to ensure compliance with NIST guidelines (e.g., shred, burn, mulch, pulp, or pulverize sensitive documents beyond recognition and reconstruction).

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should complete an up-to-date cost-benefit analysis to ensure that there is optimal bin size and number of bins based on the number of employees at all 387 IRS facilities covered under the national contract.

The Chief, Facilities Management and Security Services, should designate FMSS personnel on-site at each of the IRS facilities whose responsibilities are to verify what is serviced matches to the subcontractor CODs and to ensure that only full bins are retrieved for destruction.