IRS modernization will be a “heavy lift”---solves the tax gap
Sword 19, analyst @ Roll Call (Doug, “Congress might finally help the IRS trade in its old clunkers for newer computers,” Roll Call, https://rollcall.com/2019/04/15/congress-might-finally-help-the-irs-trade-in-its-old-clunkers-for-newer-computers/)//BB
Upgrades to the agency’s systems could allow taxpayers to receive callbacks instead of holding through the agency’s notoriously long waiting times. Required in-person visits by identity theft victims would be eliminated in favor of web solutions. Taxpayers would have online accounts, like they do at banks. Updated data analytics would target tax cheats and help the agency’s shrunken enforcement staff be more efficient. Getting from here to there will be a heavy lift. A recent report from the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent office within the IRS, described the agency’s collection of $3.5 trillion in taxes last year as perhaps the most critical job in government. But, as advocate Nina Olson wrote, the IRS is accomplishing this task with core computer systems that “are among the oldest in government.” The need to modernize the agency “will forever remain a top priority” as the IRS is charged with safeguarding a “vast amount of sensitive financial and personal data,” Rettig said in testimony before Congress last week.