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Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Processing of Recovery Rebate Credit Claims During the 2022 Filing Season

Audit | 8/24/2023

1 - Closed

On March 14, 2022, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns regarding the accuracy of COVID Tax Tip 2022-29 regarding Internal Revenue Code §§ 6428B(f) and 6428B(h). Specifically, the guidance states incorrectly that taxpayers can claim the RRC for a shared dependent even if the IRS has already made an advance payment for the dependent. We recommended that the IRS revise the Tax Tip and related Frequently Asked Questions, etc., to state that taxpayers who share qualifying dependents are required to reduce the amount of the RRC claimed by the advance payment issued to either parent on behalf of the dependent.

2 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should review the 274,865 individuals identified where the IRS issued an RRC to potentially ineligible dependents and nonresidents and take the actions needed to recover payments that are determined to be erroneous.

3 - Closed

Continue to periodically issue information on the availability of the RRC and how to claim it through Frequently Asked Questions on IRS.gov, communications with tax return preparers, annual unclaimed refund announcements, etc. until the statutory period for taxpayers to file a Tax Year 2020 and 2021 tax return to claim the RRC has expired.

4 - Closed

Send a letter to the nearly 3 million individuals we identified where the tax return data show the individual is potentially eligible for the RRC encouraging the individuals to amend their Tax Year 2021 return and claim the credit if eligible. The letter should clearly state the eligibility requirements for claiming the RRC in simple terms and direct the individuals to additional resources if needed to assist them in determining whether they are eligible.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Backlogs of Tax Returns and Other Account Work Will Continue Into the 2023 Filing Season

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic during the first 18 months, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities—two cities, two rural counties, and two Tribal reservations. This report is the second community-specific report and focuses on our work in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where we previously identified that recipients, including city government, small businesses, and individuals, received almost $314 million from 45 pandemic relief programs and subprograms. This report provides a closer look at eight pandemic programs and subprograms provided to Coeur d...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Marion County, Georgia

To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities—two cities, two rural counties, and two Tribal reservations. This report is the fourth community-specific report and focuses on our work in Marion County, Georgia, where we previously identified that recipients, including city government, small businesses, and individuals, received almost $39 million from 27 pandemic relief programs and subprograms. This report provides a closer look at six pandemic programs and subprograms provided to Marion County by six federal...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Sheridan County, Nebraska

To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities—two cities, two rural counties, and two Tribal reservations. This report is the third community-specific report and focuses on our work in Sheridan County, Nebraska, where we previously identified that recipients, including city government, small businesses, and individuals, received almost $61 million from 31 pandemic relief programs and subprograms. This report provides a closer look at six pandemic programs and subprograms provided to Sheridan County by six federal...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Delays Continue to Result in Businesses Not Receiving Pandemic Relief Benefits

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 8/31/2022

1 - Closed

On November 22, 2021, we notified the Director, Customer Account Services, Wage and Investment Division, that IRS employees were erroneously suspending Forms 941-X when the amended employment tax return did not include an adjustment to the amount of deferred Social Security tax. We recommended that the Accounts Management function immediately review the Forms 941-X that are identified in the suspense inventory as an adjustment to the amount of deferred Social Security tax to ensure that they are categorized properly.

2 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should evaluate the current inventory of backlogged claims related to pandemic relief and develop specific plans to prioritize claims and develop timelines to process backlogged claims.

3 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should review the 928 business entities identified that do not appear to qualify as an RSB and take actions needed to recover the ERCs that are determined to be erroneous.

4 - Closed

The Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should identify all fourth quarter Tax Year 2021 paper-filed Forms 941 processed prior to when the programming was implemented and identify amended employment tax returns receiving the ERC for which there was no indication that the business was an RSB and take actions needed to recover the ERCs that are determined to be erroneous.

5 - Closed

On May 13, 2021, we notified the Director, Examination, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, about the inconsistent referral criteria and recommended that the IRS update referral criteria to include Forms 941-X with refundable credits.

6 - Closed

On November 23, 2021, we alerted the Director, Customer Account Services, Wage and Investment Division, that Forms 941-X were not being referred to Examination as required and recommended that the Accounts Management function provide additional guidance to its employees to reinforce established CAT-A referral criteria.

7 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should review the 41 Form 941-X claims identified with a nonrefundable COVID-19 related employer credit that meet CAT-A referral criteria and take actions needed to recover credits that are determined to be erroneous.

8 - Closed

Provide additional training to employees as it relates to referring Forms 941-X to Examination for review.

9 - Closed

Submit a request for the development of a systemic process to identify Form 941-X claims that meet referral criteria and alert the Accounts Management employee when processing these claims of the need to refer the return to Examination.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

Delays in Management Actions Contribute to the Continued Tax Processing Center Backlogs

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 9/16/2022

1 - Closed

On September 16, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, that the IRS needed to identify when to stop coding and editing9 prior year tax returns to prevent having to rework these returns (a situation that occurred during the 2020 Filing Season). For example, the IRS needed to send 822,994 business tax returns back to the Code and Edit function at the beginning of Processing Year 2021 to be re-edited to allow for processing. This occurred because these tax returns, although edited, had not been entered into the IRS’s tax processing system by the end of Processing Year 2020. This resulted in an inefficient use of the IRS’s resources because IRS employees needed to re-edit the tax returns. We recommended that the IRS develop a plan to not only limit the number of returns that would require rework, but also any potential downtime in the Code and Edit function so that resources can be maximized for processing tax returns.

2 - Closed

On September 29, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our observation that paper-filed information returns were being sorted and batched. According to both Tax Processing Centers, a decision had not yet been made regarding if the information return documents will be processed or destroyed. As we reported in September 2021,10 the IRS faced similar decisions during Processing Year 2020 and destroyed approximately 30 million paper-filed information return documents around March 19, 2021, because the documents could no longer be processed through its systems. We recommended that the IRS determine if/when Processing Year 2021 paper-filed information return documents would be processed. As an alternative to destroying these documents, we recommended that management evaluate and consider scanning the information return documents using the Service Center Recognition Image Processing System while forgoing the data validation process.

3 - Closed

On September 17, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns with the processing of a backlog of taxpayer address changes using a first-in/first-out method. As of August 27, 2021, the Ogden Entity function had more than 173,000 address change requests in its ending inventory. In our discussions with Ogden Entity function management, they estimated that due to the backlog of inventory, more than 50 percent of the address change requests the staff were working had already been made by other means, e.g., the filing of a tax return that automatically updates the taxpayer’s address. As such, Entity function employees were needlessly expending resources working address change requests for which the address was already updated. We recommended that the IRS evaluate changing the order in which address changes are worked to a last-in/first-out method.

4 - Closed

On October 21, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns related to the accuracy of information communicated to taxpayers regarding transcript request methods. For example, our review of information posted on IRS.gov found that non-paper-based methods for requesting tax transcripts were not communicated clearly. Whereas, the Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, and Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, provide information for automated self-help service tools. We also found that the instructions on the Forms 4506 and 4506-T do not align with the website wording and could cause confusion for taxpayers. We recommended that IRS management update IRS.gov to provide clear communications on available resources. This includes updating the Forms 4506 and 4506-T tip sections to match IRS.gov language and conducting outreach to encourage individual taxpayers to obtain tax transcripts using the various automated methods.

5 - Closed

On September 16, 2021, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of our concerns about the printing capacity of the new electronic fax (e-fax) equipment in the Error Resolution System functional area, noting that this new equipment can only print about 20,000 to 30,000 pages/month (approximately 240,000/year) whereas, the prior equipment printed roughly 2 million documents per year. In addition, in the three months since Ogden received this new equipment, it has burned out and needed new parts. Although Ogden ordered new multifunctional print devices, those were not to be delivered until January 2022. As a workaround, Ogden used two printers that had a capacity of about 15,000 pages per month. We recommended that the Submission Processing function collaborate with Managed Print Services and the Information Technology organization to identify and expeditiously resolve all instances of printer capacity, break/fix, etc. issues that are causing work stoppages in the Tax Processing Centers.

6 - Closed

On December 17, 2021, we notified the Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, of our concern that the resources assigned to the RAIVS unit were not commensurate between the Kansas City and Ogden Tax Processing Centers. In our discussions, IRS management advised that taxpayer tax transcript requests had been previously transshipped from the Kansas City Tax Processing Center to the Austin Tax Processing Center with the last transshipment of work occurring in October 2021. On January 11, 2022, we notified the Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment Division, of the same concern noting that during our December 2021 walkthroughs, Kansas City management stated they have 70 full-time employees in the RAIVS/Income Verification Express Service’s unit. Whereas, Ogden management stated they have 183 full-time employees. As of December 10, 2021, the Kansas City RAIVS unit had over 751,000 unprocessed requests compared to a little more than 145,000 unprocessed requests in the Ogden RAIVS unit. We recommended that the IRS evaluate alternatives to address the volume of RAIVS inventory at the Kansas City Tax Processing Center. This should include an evaluation of the capacity to reallocate staffing at the Kansas City Tax Processing Center to assist the RAIVS unit, and/or realignment of work among the various Tax Processing Centers, i.e., transship inventory from Kansas City to Ogden.

7 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should immediately take steps to address the imbalance of Tax Processing Center staffing and inventory to address the continued backlog of transcript requests.

8 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop a detailed strategy to show how current and future staffing resources, including available surge team members, will be used to address the significant backlog of amended returns in the Submission Processing function’s inventory.

9 - Closed

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment, should ensure that the various products and IRS.gov landing pages are updated to reflect acceptable methods for faxing information to the IRS.

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Springfield, Massachusetts

To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities—two cities, two rural counties, and two Tribal reservations. This report is the first community-specific report and focuses on our work in Springfield, Massachusetts, where we previously identified that recipients, including city government, small businesses, and individuals, received almost $1.88 billion from 52 pandemic relief programs and subprograms. This report provides a closer look at nine pandemic programs and subprograms provided to Springfield by eight federal...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

The Child Tax Credit Update Portal Was Successfully Deployed, but Security and Process Improvements Are Needed

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 5/18/2022

1 - Closed

Ensure that the ELC coaches comply with existing agency requirements related to the independent verification and validation of all ELC artifacts.

1 - Closed

Ensure that the ELC coaches comply with existing agency requirements related to the independent verification and validation of all ELC artifacts.

1 - Closed

Ensure that the ELC coaches comply with existing agency requirements related to the independent verification and validation of all ELC artifacts.

10 - Closed

Prioritize remediation efforts on the two noncompliant SADI system servers that have weighted noncompliance scores of less than 90 percent.

10 - Closed

Prioritize remediation efforts on the two noncompliant SADI system servers that have weighted noncompliance scores of less than 90 percent.

10 - Closed

Prioritize remediation efforts on the two noncompliant SADI system servers that have weighted noncompliance scores of less than 90 percent.

2 - Closed

Ensure that only authorized approving authorities provide status updates and grant final approval of ELC artifacts during required milestone reviews.

2 - Closed

Ensure that only authorized approving authorities provide status updates and grant final approval of ELC artifacts during required milestone reviews.

2 - Closed

Ensure that only authorized approving authorities provide status updates and grant final approval of ELC artifacts during required milestone reviews.

3 - Closed

Establish a formal process, which includes routine updates, to identify primary and proxy approvers for all ELC artifacts.

3 - Closed

Establish a formal process, which includes routine updates, to identify primary and proxy approvers for all ELC artifacts.

3 - Closed

Establish a formal process, which includes routine updates, to identify primary and proxy approvers for all ELC artifacts.

4 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that systems supported by the CSPs have an approved IRS ATO prior to a system’s deployment.

4 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that systems supported by the CSPs have an approved IRS ATO prior to a system’s deployment.

4 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that systems supported by the CSPs have an approved IRS ATO prior to a system’s deployment.

5 - Closed

The Chief Privacy Officer should establish a process that complies with Office of Management and Budget requirements regarding the selection, implementation, assessment, and continuous monitoring of privacy controls.

6 - Closed

The Chief Privacy Officer should ensure that formal documentation is created that shows that all the privacy controls applicable to the SADI system are properly selected, implemented, and assessed.

6 - Closed

The Chief Privacy Officer should ensure that formal documentation is created that shows that all the privacy controls applicable to the SADI system are properly selected, implemented, and assessed.

6 - Closed

The Chief Privacy Officer should ensure that formal documentation is created that shows that all the privacy controls applicable to the SADI system are properly selected, implemented, and assessed.

7 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that the Cybersecurity function validates that all required NIST physical and environmental protection and media protection controls are implemented.

7 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that the Cybersecurity function validates that all required NIST physical and environmental protection and media protection controls are implemented.

7 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that the Cybersecurity function validates that all required NIST physical and environmental protection and media protection controls are implemented.

8 - Closed

The Chief Information Officer should ensure that the IRS prioritizes completing the processes that will validate newly built servers being placed into the production environment meet minimum compliance requirements and initiate vulnerability scanning and remediation during the server build process.

8 - Closed

9 - Closed

Ensure that all CTC Update Portal and SADI system associated POA&Ms (listed in Appendix II) are completed timely based on IRS-defined timelines and processes.

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration

American Rescue Plan Act: Assessment of the Child Tax Credit Update Portal’s Capabilities and Related Processes

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Date Range

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Report Category

Submitting Agency

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Agency Reviewed

Any Recommendations

Any Open Recommendations

Reports

Processing of Recovery Rebate Credit Claims During the 2022 Filing Season

Backlogs of Tax Returns and Other Account Work Will Continue Into the 2023 Filing Season

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Marion County, Georgia

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Sheridan County, Nebraska

Delays Continue to Result in Businesses Not Receiving Pandemic Relief Benefits

Delays in Management Actions Contribute to the Continued Tax Processing Center Backlogs

A Review of Pandemic Relief Funding and How It Was Used In Six U.S. Communities: Springfield, Massachusetts

The Child Tax Credit Update Portal Was Successfully Deployed, but Security and Process Improvements Are Needed

American Rescue Plan Act: Assessment of the Child Tax Credit Update Portal’s Capabilities and Related Processes

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