The IRS has begun to address deficiencies in its program that oversees applications for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, but additional improvements in the program are still needed, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said.
The agency created the ITIN in 1996 for those ineligible for Social Security numbers. Corrective actions to improve the application review and verification process have improved the identification of questionable ITIN applications, but IRS management still has not developed organizational processes and procedures to work potential fraud schemes, TIGTA said.
It said actions have not been taken to analyze information from previously processed ITIN applications to identify indicators of questionable applications that could be used to proactively identify similar applications during processing.
Further, tax examiners remain concerned that management will reverse the current focus of ensuring that only qualified individuals receive an ITIN to again emphasize quickly processing ITIN applications.
The IRS agreed to develop computer programming to flag ITIN applications that contain characteristics of previously identified questionable ITIN applications, and to ensure that the quality review process continues to emphasize the importance of the identification of questionable documents.
