Keeping modernization on track

The Internal Revenue Service must replace its aging tax processing systems, but the agency can’t stop running them while it builds replacements. So the IRS builds new systems while it operates the old systems, and it tries to make sure the new systems work with the old.

The job is “like trying to change the engines on a jumbo jet while it’s in flight, and you don’t have a complete set of blueprints to know how the original engine was put together,” said W. Todd Grams, the IRS’ chief information officer from 2003 to 2006.

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2008 budget would boost IRS modernization by $85M

The Bush administration is seeking $282 million to modernize the Internal Revenue Service in his fiscal 2008 proposed budget, an $85 million increase over the fiscal 2007 request.

Modernization is one piece of a three-part strategy for closing the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid. Congressional leaders have discussed how to bring in the taxes owed. Through modernization, the Treasury Department intends to emphasize the other two parts: better taxpayer services and enforcement to eliminate the gap, according to the budget proposal, which was released today.

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