Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should assess options for updating Publications 590-A and 590-B to either include more information or direct taxpayers to other resources for IRA owners with investments in unconventional assets. Such information could include: storage requirements for IRA investments in certain precious metals; valuation methods for hard-to-value IRA assets; the Department of Labor's process for granting exemptions to IRA prohibited transactions rules; and IRA investments with the potential to create unrelated business income tax liabilities. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, building on forthcoming compliance research using new IRA asset data, should evaluate the feasibility of requiring disclosure for high-risk IRA asset types associated with abusive schemes as transactions of interest. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should develop resources (such as training materials or job aids) for Small Business/Self-Employed examiners conducting IRA owner audits that explain how IRAs with unconventional assets can generate unrelated business income tax liability, and how examiners can refer cases to unrelated business income experts in IRS for assistance. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should make publicly available, such as on its website, a list of tax topics considered out of scope for CSRs to answer on the telephone, as well as include references for how and where to find information about these topics. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with this recommendation and said it would make out-of-scope topics more readily available for taxpayers.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should reconcile authority and implement procedures for routinely reviewing the English versions of IRS's most commonly used vital tax products and web pages to ensure that information is included in commonly encountered languages about where taxpayers with LEP can obtain the translated content. If such content is not translated, the products and web pages should include information about where taxpayers with LEP can obtain language assistance from IRS. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. In commenting on the draft report, IRS said the recommendation affects multiple stakeholders and IRS is evaluating the recommendation and actions for implementation. IRS said it would provide additional details at a later time.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should reconcile authority and implement procedures for routinely reviewing its multilingual web pages to effectively prevent, or detect and correct, errors such as incorrect or outdated information. For example, these procedures could call for the divisions to work with the Linguistics, Policy, Tools, & Services (LPTS) section whenever the English version of translated content is updated. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with this recommendation, saying each business unit would be required to work with the Linguistic Policy, Tools and Services Section whenever the English version of translated content is updated. IRS also said interpreting the Form 1040 into different languages would be a major accomplishment that it wishes to achieve in the near future.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should conduct the four-factor assessment of its language services to persons with LEP for its most commonly used vital tax products to determine (1) which products should be translated and into what languages, and (2) what interpretation assistance will be provided to arrive at the appropriate mix of translation and interpretation services. IRS should document these assessments, including the determinations it made, and take action as appropriate based on these assessments. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation. In commenting on the draft report, IRS said the recommendation affects multiple stakeholders and IRS is evaluating the recommendation and actions for implementation. IRS said it would provide additional details at a later time.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should collect and use employee input on the strengths and weaknesses of its customer service training, including on whether training is effective in improving CSRs' performance, to inform changes to its training program and strategy under the Taxpayer First Act. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with this recommendation and said it would review the employee training evaluation process to determine what steps can be taken to improve training, such as making certain evaluations mandatory for employees and updating the surveys with more focused questions in order to get more substantial feedback.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct the Wage and Investment division to develop and implement a strategy, in collaboration with its strategic workforce planning initiative, for the efficient use of overtime. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should further assess the increase in "system downtime" and identify possible solutions to mitigate any problems and reduce system downtime. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with this recommendation. In commenting on the draft report, IRS said it completed a further assessment after our audit and identified potential contributing factors. IRS said it implemented changes to the call center environment and was updating the Customer Service Representative technology platform to further improve system availability.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should perform regular monitoring of fluctuations in system downtime charges, such as increases overall or by specific units, to determine what, if any, factors are interrupting CSRs' work. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS said it agreed with this recommendation and would monitor the system downtime reported by the Customer Service Representatives (CSR) in Customer Account Services. In commenting on the draft report, IRS said it had implemented changes to the call center environment and was updating the CSR technology platform to further improve system availability.

Recommendation: The Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service should direct appropriate officials to develop a long-term strategy to improve web services provided to taxpayers, in accordance with Howto.gov and other federal guidance outlined in our report. To accomplish this, the IRS should establish a numerical or other measureable goal to improve taxpayer satisfaction and a timeframe for achieving it.

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS has made progress in improving its online services strategy, as we recommended, but as of February 2020, IRS has not yet completed its efforts. IRS's strategy has evolved from a singular focus on on-line services to a more comprehensive strategy of taxpayer interaction through all service channels. In February 2016, IRS announced an agency-wide Future State Initiative, which in part, aims to deliver service improvements across different taxpayer interactions such as individual online accounts assistance, exams, and collections. In July 2016, the official responsible for IRS's on-line office reported that the agency is working towards developing an overall customer service satisfaction goal as part of the IRS Future State Initiative. The official said that this goal is broadly meant to cover various ways the public interacts with IRS, including web, phone, correspondence and walk in. In November 2016, IRS provided documentation on the goals of the Future State Initiative. However, this documentation does not include specific numerical targets for the performance measures that IRS expects to achieve for each goal or a timeline to achieve those goals. IRS officials stated they will incorporate a customer service satisfaction goal in its upcoming strategic plan. IRS released the Fiscal Year 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, however a numerical or other measureable goal to improve taxpayer satisfaction with the website was not included in it. We are currently following up with IRS to determine their next steps.