Open Recommendations

The Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement should continue efforts to close the virtual currency information gap by issuing guidance clarifying the proper information reporting associated with virtual currency transactions.

The Chief Privacy Officer should develop a standard form for all pseudonym requests, approval, registration, and recordkeeping of pseudonym information.

The Chief Privacy Officer should perform a full inventory to develop a complete and accurate list of active pseudonyms.

The Chief Privacy Officer should establish processes to maintain a complete and fully supported list of pseudonyms.

The Chief Privacy Officer should periodically solicit pseudonym holders to determine whether each employee still needs a pseudonym, and advise those that no longer need a pseudonym that they have the option to withdraw from the program.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should consider working with its external partners to add retailers in States without a participating location to increase the availability of the payment option

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should conduct public awareness activities to increase taxpayers’ knowledge of all cash payment options and update internal guidance to reflect the most current information about cash payment options.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop processes and procedures to ensure that continuous criminal background checks are conducted on all program participants as part of the FBI RAP Back Program. These processes and procedures should include steps to evaluate continued participation in IRS programs for individuals identified with a criminal history.

The Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement should develop Service-wide processes and procedures to ensure that all operating divisions suppress the issuance of nonstatutory notices to taxpayers that have a UD mail indicator on their account; suppress the issuance of correspondence when a taxpayer's address of record is an IRS campus; and research and update taxpayer addresses for which the USPS returns undeliverable mail with a yellow label that provides a more current address.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should install and use hygiene software to perfect taxpayer addresses on the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) RTS system.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, and the National Taxpayer Advocate should formally develop and document a vision and specific goals for their VSD programs and develop performance measures to monitor and evaluate the performance of the individual programs.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, and the National Taxpayer Advocate should both conduct public awareness activities to increase taxpayers’ knowledge of the VSD program.

The Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should analyze the current selection criteria used by the WHCS to determine if the taxpayers identified for systemic lock-in letter issuance are the best use of limited resources. This would include potentially identifying taxpayers with multiple years of underwithholding and the percentage of inventory that includes nonfilers.

Complete a cost analysis to 1) determine the efficacy of relocating CI assets in each of the field offices to existing IRS computer rooms versus upgrading the CI computer rooms to ensure that assets are protected in accordance with Federal and IRM security requirements and 2) implement the most cost-effective solution.

The Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should evaluate whether provisions of the MOU require amendment, revision, or termination and ensure that the duties and responsibilities of the IRS, as outlined in the MOU, are executed as required.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should correct programming to reject EIN applications when an EIN has previously been assigned to the same sole proprietor and to reject applications when IRS data indicate that the sole proprietor is deceased.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop programming to reject estate applications if the decedent TIN is not that of a deceased individual.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should correct ANMF programming to compute and assess the Failure to File penalty on Form 1040NR, U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return, accounts in which the Taxpayer Identification Number is an Employer Identification Number.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should Correct ANMF programming to use the correct date when computing the Failure to Pay penalty. In addition, programming should be corrected to ensure that the proper penalty rate is used to compute the penalty amount.

The Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement should revise identification processes to include sole proprietor information from Form SS-4 to identify individual tax refunds to offset to business tax debt.