Open Recommendations

The Chief Information Officer should coordinate with OMB officials to determine if the IRS’s BYOD program’s policies and procedures are in compliance with the Act and update the program’s policies and procedures as needed.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should relocate current and future inventory of Forms 2848 and 8821 to another storage facility.

The Chief, FMSS, should enable personnel to access storage boxes without the use of a ladder.

The Chief, FMSS, should repair shelves sagging from the weight of the files and properly mark shelves with load ratings.

The Chief, FMSS, should install protective covering above the area in which C-site personnel park their vehicles.

Ensure that all 1,286 noncompliant card readers are replaced with Federally compliant card readers and are properly configured.

The DCSE should update the Processing Returns and Accounts of the President and Vice President internal guidelines to accurately reflect the process followed from receipt of a Presidential return through assignment and performance of the mandatory examination.

The DCSE should update guidelines to establish time frames for the expeditious handling of the Presidential returns at all phases of the process.

The DCSE should conduct an analysis to determine whether there are opportunities to reduce delays in requesting and getting access to restricted Presidential tax accounts, and implement any corrective actions based on this analysis.

The DCSE should formalize in internal guidelines (1) the criteria to restrict the accounts of the President and Vice President and (2) the process for requesting and gaining access to restricted Presidential accounts.

Create a single Service-wide comprehensive digitalization strategy that identifies priorities, objectives, interim target dates, milestones, etc. The strategy should identify the IRS business units responsible for the applicable actions and should be updated annually.

Develop processes to require management to track digitalization efforts and compare results against the plans, goals, objectives, milestone dates, etc., and analyze any significant deviations to identify needed strategic changes.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, and the Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should consider expanding the use of soft notices to address potentially erroneous PTC claims. These notices should provide individuals with information specific to the eligibility or reporting requirements related to the potential error the IRS identified and suggest the filing of an amended return, if an error has occurred.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should notify the 317,418 taxpayers we identified, who potentially received less PTC than they were entitled or repaid more APTC than required, that they may qualify for additional PTC or overpaid APTC and encourage them to file an amended Tax Year 2021 return, if applicable.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop processes, such as the use of courtesy letters to notify individuals of their potential eligibility, to proactively assist taxpayers who, based on available tax return and Exchange data, potentially claimed less PTC than entitled or paid more APTC than required.

Create a method to collect the identifying information of authorized individuals as part of the application for a CAF number. For authorized individuals who already have a CAF number assigned, create a method to collect identifying information during subsequent authorization requests.

The Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should continue to identify new tax accounts with a Social Security tax deferral at least through Calendar Year 2024 to ensure that all unpaid deferrals are identified for collection as appropriate.

Create a detailed plan for how each TXS capability will be implemented and develop benchmarks, performance measures, and milestones.

Complete a usage study and document a decision regarding if the IRS will mandate that participants use the TFA IVES system.

The Chief, Appeals, should establish a process with the appropriate Business Operating Divisions (BOD) to identify, track, and update forms, letters, publications, notices, websites, and social media that still require the new IRS Independent Office of Appeals name.

Establish a documented annual enterprise-wide examination planning process that aligns with the multiyear, comprehensive Examination Strategic Plan.

Develop a tool to consider risk and other relevant variables to inform examination resource allocation decisions, then expand its use to include Examination workstreams from all divisions.

Ensure that the IRS does not burden taxpayers in existing payment agreements when PCA contracts are ending by developing a solution to continue to service taxpayers in active payment arrangements.

On June 15, 2021, we alerted IRS management of our concerns with the systemic calculation of the allowable RRC amount. We recommended that IRS management review the returns we identified and provide us with any corrective actions they intended to take.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure that programming is updated to systemically reject electronic submissions of Forms 2848 and 8821 when missing one of the five essential elements (name, address, signature, etc.) without manually mailing a rejection letter.