IRS Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Kaschit Pandya said Tuesday that his agency interacts with more Americans than nearly any other public or private organization and is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its customer experience. […]

The IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate, Erin M. Collins, is calling on Congress to help reallocate certain funds from the IRS’s Inflation Reduction Act funding to assist in its modernization efforts. […]

A June 18 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reckons that the IRS as of March had used about 10 percent of the approximately $57 billion in multi-year modernization funding that Congress has approved for the agency. […]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that the state of Oregon is the first to join up for the IRS Direct File program – which allows taxpayers to file their tax returns directly with the IRS online – for the 2025 tax filing season. […]

The online services director at the IRS this week mapped out key goals of the agency’s ongoing technology improvements plans that will roll out over the next three years.   […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is asking the IRS to take steps to document its use of AI technology in a new pilot the agency is taking to explore the “tax gap” – which represents the difference in the amount of taxes owed versus those collected. […]

Along with ongoing technology modernization efforts – which include implementation of artificial intelligence and cloud-based technologies to streamline operations – IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said today that increasing the agency’s workforce to handle taxpayer demand remains a high priority. […]

After a successful year of piloting during the 2024 tax season, the IRS said today it is moving forward with making its Direct File program a permanent tool. […]

The IRS has announced the extension of its current Free File program through 2029 under an agreement with Free File, Inc. – a partnership between the agency and several tax preparation software firms – that provides free access to tax prep and online filing software. […]

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel wants to expand agency’s programs that allow taxpayers to file their tax returns with the government for free, following on the agency’s Free File and Direct File pilots. […]

The IRS is taking claim for a range of technology-driven customer service improvements over the past year, and pointing to future improvements it hopes to achieve, in an update to its strategic operating plan published on May 2. […]

With tax season finally over, the IRS is touting the success of its Direct File pilot after officially closing the new service that helped over 140,000 taxpayers file their Federal tax returns. […]

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) – which was created by Congress in 1999 to provide oversight of the Internal Revenue Service – claimed credit this week for helping the IRS prevent the potentially fraudulent use of $3.5 billion of tax credits. […]

As the IRS moves forward with deploying artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into agency operations, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said this week that the pace of adoption will remain cautious in the interests of protecting taxpayer privacy. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in an April 9 report that the IRS maybe underestimating the true cost of its Direct File tax system pilot, which allows taxpayers to file their tax returns electronically and for free with the agency. […]

The IRS is moving both with deliberation and an expansive set of possibilities as it studies how the agency can take advantage of generative artificial intelligence technologies, a senior IRS tech official said at the Salesforce World Tour D.C. 2024 event on April 10. […]

The U.S. Digital Service (USDS) partnered with the IRS to launch the new Direct File Pilot Program, which USDS Administrator Mina Hsiang said on Wednesday is an “incredibly exciting” customer experience (CX) achievement. […]

A group of 21 tax officials from 18 states is urging the Department of Treasury (DOT) to disband the IRS’ new Direct File pilot program, citing potential tax filing problems they said could arise from confusion on the part of taxpayers. […]

New legislation introduced in the House by Reps. Clay Higgins, R-La., and Eric Burlison, R-Mo., would put limits on how the IRS can use AI technology – specifically in choosing whose tax returns to audit. […]

Congress is taking steps as part of its fiscal year 2024 government appropriations bills to lop off a quarter of the $80 billion of modernization funding for the IRS approved in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022. […]

Aiming to generate good customer experience across Federal agencies is far from a new concept, but the implementation of analytical and artificial intelligence-based tools across the Federal government is allowing for a much-needed revamp of how the government delivers services. […]

The IRS needs to work on improving how the agency tracks its modernization efforts, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released March 19. […]

The Department of Treasury, along with its IRS component, is moving toward a requirement that agency leadership work more than half of their hours within traditional office settings. […]

A new watchdog report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) finds that the IRS as of July 2023 was giving 19 contractors access to sensitive systems after the contractors had unfavorable background checks. […]

A bipartisan pair of senators has introduced legislation that would require the IRS to implement barcode technology to speed up the agency’s tax filing process while saving money for the agency. […]

The IRS announced today that the latest version of  its IRS Free File Guided Tax Software service is online and operational for taxpayers to prepare in advance for the 2024 tax filing season. […]

While the IRS has been making historic progress in modernizing its tech-based capabilities to streamline workforce effort and tax processes, a new report from the agency’s taxpayer advocate office says IRS still has more work to do to eliminate paper-based processes. […]

With the new year underway, the IRS is gearing up to pilot a new scanning system for the 2024 tax filing season that will utilize AI and machine learning (ML) technology to scan tax returns into the agency’s tax processing systems. […]

As the IRS moves toward testing out its new direct file system pilot in the coming tax season, the agency said it will be use ID.me identity verification technology to help identify participants in the pilot program, according to an IRS blog post. […]

With the IRS collecting more than $4.9 trillion in Federal taxes for fiscal year 2022 – totaling 96 percent of all government funding for that year – it’s more important than ever for the agency to speed the development of modernized services for taxpayers and more efficient tax collection for government. […]