The IRS needs to continue to improve a database it uses to monitor the performance of organizations that provide free tax preparation services, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said.
The database system has successfully integrated older legacy systems and improved the collection of data on these organizations but the new tool leaves room for error because data must be manually entered, creating problems with timeliness and accuracy, according to TIGTA.
It said over 88,000 volunteers prepared a combined 3.1 million federal tax returns in fiscal 2011, and the new database can generate more than 100 management reports.
However, it said the database does not capture information necessary to compare expectations to accomplishments and requires that information from forms be manually input.
TIGTA found that 600 forms related to 135 volunteer program sites showed that 91 of the sites had data on at least one of the three forms reviewed that did not match the information contained on the database, known as SPECTRM.
The IRS agreed to consider modifying the database to accept uploads of electronic forms as well as require volunteer program information to be entered into the database and periodically reviewed for timeliness and accuracy.