Reports

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

The IRS Continues to Reduce Backlog Inventories in the Tax Processing Centers

Audit | 3/18/2024

Social Security Administration OIG

Controls over the Social Security Administration’s National 800-number Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration had and used management controls over the service its 800 number employees provided callers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 8/29/2023

Department of Homeland Security OIG

Ineffective Controls Over COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Leave the Program Susceptible to Waste and Abuse

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not always implement effective internal controls to provide oversight of COVID-19 Funeral Assistance. FEMA’s funeral assistance program greatly expanded the universe of reimbursable expenses for deaths related to COVID-19, even beyond those specifically identified as ineligible under established FEMA policy, without establishing guardrails to ensure relief was limited to necessary expenses and serious needs as required by statute.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 8/24/2023

1 - Open

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator resolve questioned costs totaling an estimated $24,438,662 for expenses deemed ineligible by FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide and determine the amount of any debts owed by recipients for erroneous payments.

2 - Closed

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator resolve other questioned costs included in our report and determine the amount of any debts owed by recipients for erroneous payments. Other questioned costs requiring resolution include: a) $1,348,546 for awards issued to multiple applicants for the same decedents; b) $554,653 for awards issued for applications that exceeded the $9,000 per decedent award limit; and c) $591,805 for 93 applications for which FEMA did not adequately review eligibility criteria of the applications.

3 - Open

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator ensure that future iterations of the Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide and supporting procedures (a) provide consistent guidance on eligibility of funeral expenses for all future disaster declarations; and (b) allow for reimbursement of only necessary expenses and serious needs, consistent with the law.

4 - Closed

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator strengthen and monitor improvement of FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance training practices with particular focus on: a) distinguishing legitimate sources of potential duplication such as decedent’s name and social security number from potential duplications that arise due to FEMA using a repurposed Individual Assistance processing system, with a data field such as damaged dwelling address; b) preventing FEMA from reimbursing expenses exceeding the maximum $9,000 per decedent; and c) deducting financial assistance received from outside sources such as pre-need funeral arrangements, burial insurance, and assistance from other voluntary or government agencies.

5 - Open

We recommend that the FEMA Administrator ensure that FEMA provides its COVID-19 Funeral Assistance call center contractor the guidance and training necessary to meet the quality control and production monitoring metrics as prescribed by its agreement with the contractor.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

American Rescue Plan Act: Review of the Reconciliation of the Child Tax Credit

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 6/14/2023

1 - Open

Review all of the 6,833 taxpayers with excess Child Tax Credit identified during our review and take appropriate actions to ensure that the taxpayers receive the correct amount of the Child Tax Credit.

2 - Closed

Identify additional taxpayers after May 5, 2022, who received excess Child Tax Credit as a result of tax examiner error and take appropriate actions to ensure that these taxpayers receive the correct amount of the Child Tax Credit.

3 - Closed

Review the 105 taxpayers who potentially did not receive all of their eligible Child Tax Credit identified during our review and take appropriate actions to ensure that they receive the correct amount of the Child Tax Credit.

4 - Closed

Evaluate the priority of programming to ensure that processes and procedures are developed to identify and correct tax examiner entries input during the error correction process that exceed statutory limits, including a process to systemically reprocess corrected returns through Error Resolution programming before being released for processing.

5 - Closed

On February 17, 2022, we notified IRS management of our concerns with undeliverable payments that post after the processing of the tax return. In these instances, the IRS processed the tax return as if the payment was received by the taxpayer. As a result, the taxpayer would receive less Child Tax Credit than they are eligible to receive. We recommended that the IRS develop a process to identify undeliverable payments after
processing of the TY 2021 tax return.

6 - Closed

Identify taxpayers with advance payments who have yet to file a TY 2021 tax return and send a reminder notice, similar to the Department of the Treasury, using the advance payments as part of the criteria.

7 - Closed

Work with the Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, to create a process to recover potentially erroneous advance payments from taxpayers who have not filed a TY 2021 tax return.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

American Rescue Plan Act: Continued Review of Premium Tax Credit Provisions

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 6/14/2023

1 - Open

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.

2 - Closed

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.

2 - Open

3 - Closed

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.

3 - Open

4 - Closed

On October 26, 2022, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, of our concerns regarding taxpayers who are potentially eligible for additional PTC based on their unemployment status during Tax Year 2021. We recommended that the Director, Submission Processing, notify these taxpayers that they may qualify for additional PTC or be able to reduce the amount of excess APTC they must repay and encourage them to file an amended Tax Year 2021 return, if they qualify.

5 - Closed

On October 25, 2022, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, of our concerns with the draft Tax Year 2022 Form 8962 instructions. We
recommended that the IRS revise the instructions to inform taxpayers that they have an option to set a domestic violence indicator on their tax return.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Recurring Identification Is Needed to Ensure That Employers Full Pay the Deferred Social Security Tax

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/22/2023

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Additional Actions Are Needed to Reduce Accounts Management Function Inventories to Below Pre‑Pandemic Levels

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/10/2023

1 - Closed

Ensure that all sites understand and begin immediately stamping the ICT received date after correspondence screening is completed, and that individual and business documents are screened with equal importance.

10 - Open

Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to explore adding Taxpayer Relations inventories into the CII, so that all Accounts Management inventory is located in the same inventory management system.

11 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should establish time frames for and a process to measure correspondence screening timeliness at each site.

12 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should rescind the requirement that only the TEs and the CSRs perform correspondence
screening and encourage all sites to use mail clerks, after providing them with adequate training.

13 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should ensure prompt completion of the ICT review to determine if additional scanners will be
purchased.

2 - Closed

Discontinue correspondence screening via telework and ensure at all sites that screening must be conducted in the same IRS facility where documents are being scanned by the ICT.

3 - Closed

Identify and address the cause of Accounts Management function employees incorrectly routing cases to other IRS functions and work with other IRS functions to update their Internal Revenue Manuals to make it clear that incorrectly routed documents should be returned to the
originating employee.

4 - Closed

We recommended that management take steps to hire as many mail clerks as possible.

5 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should establish goals for each of the Accounts Management function’s inventory types and develop a plan for addressing those goals to ensure a timely return to pre-pandemic inventory levels.

6 - Open

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment, should prioritize funding and implementation of automated processing of Forms 1040-X to increase efficiencies and reduce taxpayer burden.

7 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should implement temporary solutions for the processing of Forms 1040-X to reduce the backlogs, reduce taxpayer burden, and save IRS resources until an automated solution is implemented.

8 - Open

Coordinate with the Information Technology organization to prevent generating transcripts for manual refunds less than $100 and adjust the frequency that some transcripts are generated to help management get through the inventory more efficiently.

9 - Closed

Temporarily relieve employees in the Accounts Management function from having to complete paperwork for barred statutes, so they can focus on eliminating the backlogged inventory and prevent future barred statutes.

Department of Homeland Security OIG

FEMA Did Not Provide Sufficient Oversight of Project Airbridge

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not provide sufficient oversight of Project Airbridge, a COVID-19 initiative. Under unprecedented pressure to mitigate disruptions in global medical supply chains, FEMA established Project Airbridge.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Homeland Security OIG

FEMA’s Management of Mission Assignments to Other Federal Agencies Needs Improvement

Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) processed and obligated funds timely to other Federal agencies (OFA), it did not provide sufficient oversight to ensure OFAs used pandemic funding as required. Specifically, FEMA did not develop detailed cost estimates when initially establishing MAs, validate unliquidated and open obligations throughout the MA lifecycle, and verify cost eligibility against Public Assistance guidance before closing the MA.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 9/30/2022

Social Security Administration OIG

The Social Security Administration’s Enumeration Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) complied with its enumeration policies and procedures and had adequate controls over managing evidentiary documents submitted to support Social Security number (SSN) card applications during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 9/30/2022

1 - Closed

Develop and periodically conduct comprehensive refresher training on topics including but not limited to:
- processing original Social Security Number (SSN) cards for individuals aged 12 or older and emphasize requirements and documentation of the in-person interview;
- acceptable forms of evidentiary documents, and
- processing new (different) and replacement SSN cards when adoption

10 - Open

Complete the privacy assessments for the WorkTrack application.

2 - Open

Update quality control reviews to include comparison of SSNAP inputs to an applicant-submitted Form SS-5 and evidentiary documents, and provide feedback to the technicians who made input errors (such as race and ethnicity) or did not use the appropriate evidentiary documents.

3 - Open

Revise enumeration policy to include clear instructions for when Form SSA-5002 is required and how to properly document the form.

4 - Closed

Update Program Operations Manual System (POMS) to provide current instructions for enumeration notices and archive outdated policy.

5 - Open

Retain enumeration notices in the Online Retrieval System for individuals with assigned SSNs.

6 - Open

Create and implement automated tools to assist staff in navigating through enumeration evidentiary document requirements.

7 - Closed

Take corrective action on all keying errors and cross-referencing errors we identified.

8 - Closed

Require managers to verify that incident reports are submitted through the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Loss Reporting Tool before they approve reimbursement to customers for replacing lost original documents.

9 - Closed

Update the National Mail Handling Business Process to include standard Agency-wide mitigation steps for misdirected mail including original documents.

Date Range

Report Type

Report Category

Submitting Agency

State/Local Agency

State (State and Local Reports)

Fraud Type

Agency Reviewed

Related Organizations

Management Challenges

Any Recommendations

Any Open Recommendations

Reports

The IRS Continues to Reduce Backlog Inventories in the Tax Processing Centers

Controls over the Social Security Administration’s National 800-number Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ineffective Controls Over COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Leave the Program Susceptible to Waste and Abuse

American Rescue Plan Act: Review of the Reconciliation of the Child Tax Credit

American Rescue Plan Act: Continued Review of Premium Tax Credit Provisions

Recurring Identification Is Needed to Ensure That Employers Full Pay the Deferred Social Security Tax

Additional Actions Are Needed to Reduce Accounts Management Function Inventories to Below Pre‑Pandemic Levels

FEMA Did Not Provide Sufficient Oversight of Project Airbridge

FEMA’s Management of Mission Assignments to Other Federal Agencies Needs Improvement

The Social Security Administration’s Enumeration Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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