From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: IRS's Online Services Description: We're talking about how the IRS develops plans for new online services. Related GAO Work: GAO-20-71: Tax Administration: Taxpayer Input Could Strengthen IRS's Online Services Released: December 2019 [ Background Music ] [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] IRS is primarily prioritizing based on things that improve its own operations, or things that can be developed quickly. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the US Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. The IRS's online services for individual taxpayers primarily provide one-way communications like info about the arrival schedule for a refund, or allowing taxpayers to make payments. But the IRS is working on plans to develop new online services. Jessica Lucas-Judy is a Strategic Issues director, and we're going to talk about a GAO report that takes a look at those plans. Thanks for joining me, Jessica. [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] Thanks for having me, Matt. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, do we know what the IRS is working on? [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] Well, as you can imagine, one of the challenges that we faced in doing this study was that online services is potentially just a huge category. It could include anything on IRS's website. They have a lot of forms, and publications, and instructions. They have this online withholding estimator to make sure that you're withholding enough from your paycheck, or your pension. So we narrowed our focus to look at services that are personalized and interactive, so that narrowed it down to about 10 different services. And many of these are for exchanging information, or getting information from IRS about your specific situation. So 'view my account' and 'where's my refund?' are some of the most well-known, as you can imagine. IRS also has some options for payments - either making a payment or applying to set up a payment plan. In addition, they're also working on piloting some communication tools for certain groups of taxpayers. But those aren't available yet very widely. [ Matt Oldham: ] How does IRS determine which services to develop? [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] Well in trying to develop future services, IRS can't do everything. So it has to prioritize. And what we found was that IRS is primarily prioritizing based on things that improve its own operations, IRS's operations, or things that can be developed quickly - basically low-hanging fruit. They consider the impact on the taxpayer or the taxpayer experience, but what we found is that they weren't doing that by asking taxpayers what they actually want or what's important to them. Now by contrast we looked at the United Kingdom and its taxation office, they, in developing their online services, presented a whole list of options that they were considering and through interviews and surveys and workshops they asked tax payers directly what they wanted what, was most important. And they used that to help prioritize their services [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] So, it sounds like the IRS is moving forward to develop new online services, but they've been focusing more on services that could benefit the IRS, and spending less attention finding out what would satisfy taxpayers' needs. Are there any examples of other revenue agencies doing things online that the IRS isn't? [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] In addition to the United Kingdom, we also looked at Australia and New Zealand, and in addition we looked at three states; Alabama, California, and New York. And one thing that we noticed in looking at the three countries was that their features their online services are highly integrated, so you log into one of those services and you have access to the full range. You don't have to have different accounts, and different passwords, and different ways of accessing that information. It's sort of a one-stop shop. But one of the striking differences was in the ability to file online. All three of the countries that we looked at have the ability to file your taxes directly online, and a lot of the states that we looked at have that as well. IRS has an agreement with industry to provide some services for online filing. In addition, tax payers can hire or obtain services of a software provider or a tax preparer, and be able to file online that way. But there's no way right now to do it directly. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, then are there any recommendations here for IRS? [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] Our report has seven different recommendations, and these include things like collecting information on tax payers experience with all of its online services and reporting that information out, also analyzing the effect of new services on taxpayer burden - their potential effect on taxpayer burden - as they're considering developing new services, and then as I mentioned with that agreement with industry, that agreement is about 20 years old, and it's been renewed eight times, but we found that there was insufficient consideration of the benefits and costs of that agreement, and particularly on the impact on IRS's ability to develop new services, such as the ability for electronic filing. So we recommended that before they do another renewal, that they consider fully the benefits and the cost of that agreement. [ Matt Oldham: ] So last question, what's the bottom line of this report? [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] These days, people expect to be able to do pretty much anything online to check their account balances, to pay bills, to exchange money with friends, or to order groceries and have them delivered. And so it makes sense that IRS is going to be exploring options for helping taxpayers meet their tax obligations, and get information to do that online. But at the same time, IRS has to consider security and safety of the information that's being exchanged, to make sure they're protecting taxpayers, and also make sure that they are providing services for people who don't want to or can't interact with IRS electronically, and want to be able to have that in-person, or on the phone, or by mail interaction. And so, our report identifies a number of different things that IRS could do to help make sure that the services that it's currently providing are meeting taxpayer needs. And also that services that it's considering for the future, are things that taxpayers actually want and are actually going to use. [ Matt Oldham: ] Jessica Lucas-Judy was talking about a GAO report looking at how the IRS is developing plans for new online services. Thank you for your time Jessica. [ Jessica Lucas-Judy: ] Thank you. [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the watchdog report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple podcasts. And make sure you leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the Congressional watchdog, the US Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov