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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Flood floats telework to top priority at IRS

The more than 20 feet of water that flooded the basement of the Internal Revenue Service’s headquarters last year has helped float telecommuting to a top agency concern.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration wants the IRS’ chief human capital officer to build a business case to decide whether to expand telecommuting by giving more laptop computers to employees, according to a Feb. 7 report.

“Increasing the availability of laptop computers for telecommuting could further strengthen the IRS’ ability to continue working during emergencies,” the report states.

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Free File opens for early birds

Free File, a tax-filing program, opened today for taxpayers wanting to get an early start on filing season.

The controversial program, in its fifth year, is a free tax preparation and electronic filing initiative between the Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance, which is composed of 20 private-sector tax preparation companies.

Congress and the IRS’ inspector general have criticized the program for excluding taxpayers who once used the program by setting stricter income requirements. Those requirements caused a double-digit percentage drop in usage in 2006.

But the IRS and the alliance have made Free File more consumer-friendly this year, according to the IRS.

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IRS, IG disagree on process vs. independent judgment

The Internal Revenue Service and its inspector general are divided on whether to define a process or use managers’ judgment to analyze the effects of project delays.

IRS officials objected to the IG’s recommendation to establish a process to determine the effects of deferred work on funding and for marking incomplete work to avoid paying for it again, according to a December 2006 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report on the Modernization e-File project.

Officials consider the process a waste of resources.

But, the IG wrote, such a process should help prevent the agency from paying for the same work.

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