Reports

Personnel supporting Federal health care programs are a resource critical to the Federal COVID-19 pandemic response efforts. Health care facilities must be prepared for potential personnel shortages and must have plans and processes in place to mitigate these shortages to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics. The PRAC will coordinate a review of four Federal health care programs to determine whether these programs, or the providers they reimburse, experienced shortages in health care personnel during the pandemic, the impact of those health care personnel shortages, and strategies used by the Departments to reduce shortages of health care personnel for future pandemics.

TIGTA is initiating a review to evaluate the IRS's efforts to ensure that taxpayers repay their deferred Social Security taxes as required.  TIGTA plans to evaluate whether accurate reminder notices were sent to taxpayers who deferred their Social Security tax during Tax Year 2020, whether taxpayers made their required repayment of deferred Social Security taxes by December 31, 2021, and whether appropriate penalties and interest were assessed on taxpayers who did not timely repay their deferred Social Security tax.

TIGTA is initiating a review to assess the IRS's actions to address the backlog of unworked returns and inventories during Filing Season 2022.  This will include evaluating: progress to ensure that the Tax Processing Centers are adequately staffed to meet workload demands; effectiveness of the Submission Processing function’s Inventory Reduction Teams in addressing backlogged inventories; effectiveness of management in identifying and implementing process improvements to increase efficiency of tax processing and reduce taxpayer burden; and, impact on the IRS’s Files Management function due to the closures of and limited staffing at the Federal Record Centers.

TIGTA is initiating a review of the reconciliation of the advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments made to individuals during CY 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. TIGTA will assess the following: accuracy of the IRS's outreach and assistance to individuals regarding the reconciliation of the advance CTC payments on TY 2021 tax returns; updates to the business rules relating to CTC, ACTC, and Credits for Other Dependents and changes made to the error resolution codes to ensure they are functioning as intended; the processing of tax returns to ensure that the IRS is properly calculating the CTC and applying Safe Harbor rules; the IRS's processes and procedures to address taxpayer accounts with advance CTC payment reversals since the issuance of the Letter 6419; and, the IRS's fraud filters and compliance plans to determine if there are adequate controls to identify potentially erroneous CTC claims.

TIGTA is initiating a review to assess the IRS's actions to implement legislative changes to the Premium Tax Credit (PTC) made by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.  The overall objective is to assess the adequacy of processes and procedures to ensure expanded PTC eligibility requirements are met prior to credits being allowed. TIGTA plans to ensure forms and publications have been updated, assess the accuracy of the processing of PTC claims during 2022, ensure that individuals who can claim additional child tax credit due to the Advance PTC adjustment receives appropriate notices, and assess the current process to help taxpayers who report on the PTC form that they are a victim of domestic violence.

TIGTA is initiating a review to evaluate the effectiveness of the Internal Revenue Service’s reconciliation of advance payments issued and Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC) claims during the 2022 Filing Season. The overall objective of this audit is to assess the processing of the RRC claims during the 2022 Filing Season, including ensuring that taxpayers properly reconcile advanced payments received during CY 2021.  Specifically TIGTA will assess the IRS's outreach and assistance to individuals regarding RRC.  Ensure the RRC computed by the IRS is accurate and TY 2021 tax returns with an RRC claim are processed correctly.  Ensure eligible individuals who did not receive their advance ARPA payments receive the correct RRC amounts. And, determine whether the IRS took sufficient actions to prevent ineligible individuals from receiving erroneous RRC.

TIGTA is initiating a review of the IRS's processes and procedures to ensure that the expanded EITC and CDCC eligibility requirements are met prior to tax credits being allowed.  It plans to determine if the IRS is appropriately rejecting incorrect/incomplete Schedule EIC claims for childless EITC and incorrect/incomplete forms claiming child and dependent care expenses, and preventing incorrect tax returns from processing with these claims.  TIGTA will also evaluate the action taken by the IRS to address processing weaknesses identified during a previous audit to determine if the IRS is preventing erroneous CDCC claims. 
 

TIGTA is initiating a review to determine whether expedited hiring practices during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic present potential security risks by assessing the effectiveness of fingerprinting and hiring activities, including inspection of employment eligibility documents.  It plans to identify newly established policies and guidance implemented to facilitate hiring during the pandemic, obtain extracts of new hires from 3/23/20 through 7/17/21 where either fingerprinting or Form I-9 physical inspection of identity documents was deferred, and determine whether hiring records comply with the requirements of the newly established policies and guidance implemented to facilitate hiring during the pandemic.
 

TIGTA is initiating a review of the IRS's oversight of the IRS's Information Technology organization's oversight of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funding. ARPA is the latest in a series of coronavirus pandemic-related relief and economic stimulus legislation.  It includes approximately $1.9 trillion in economic relief and stimulus to address the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses.  ARPA provides the IRS with approximately $1.8 billion for the implementation of numerous tax-related provisions intended to provide relief to individuals and businesses and to modernize and secure its systems.  The IT organization was allocated approximately $1 billion of these funds for the systems work.

Throughout the pandemic, the use of telehealth has been critically important to ensure continued and expanded access to care while reducing the risks of exposure and spread of COVID-19.  As the effects of the pandemic are still being felt throughout the Nation, there are questions about how telehealth can best be used to meet the needs of beneficiaries in the future. The PRAC will conduct and coordinate a review of six Federal healthcare programs to identify the nature of telehealth across these programs and to identify any potential integrity risks associated with telehealth programs and the facilitation of telehealth care.