The IG said one benefit of developing the model is that the
agency now has a single database with key management information
on each of its 400 TACs, something it said the agency should be
able to maintain for future analyses.
The audit concludes that the IRS commissioner for the wage and
investment division should ensure that the model or any decision-
making tool should include data to identify customer
characteristics and capture customer input to effectively measure
the impact any results might have on taxpayer service and
compliance.
However, IRS management said measuring the effect of taxpayer
services on compliance is a difficult task that the agency has been
unable to accomplish reliably since taxpayer service programs were
created in the 1940s.
Management also said a five-year taxpayer assistance blueprint would
outline what services the agency should provide as well as how to
improve services for taxpayers by leveraging reliable data on
taxpayer and partner needs and preferences.
The first phase of the blueprint would provide a baseline of
current IRS services, taxpayer and partner needs and preferences,
service industry benchmarking, and strategic service directions,
according to IRS management.
It said the second phase would validate the service recommendations
through research with taxpayers and identify key operational and
resource delivery requirements — and that the data would be used,
updated and maintained for use in the TAC model.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 90,000
IRS employees, issued a statement in response to the audit, saying
the plan to close the TACs was ill-conceived and unwise, and it
called on the IG to go back and rework the report to provide Congress
with the more information.