The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Direct File pilot – a new online tax return filing service for individual taxpayers – was successful in its initial pilot in 2024 but should be expanded to improve equity and address challenges, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report.   […]

A group of House Republicans is asking President-elect Donald Trump to end the IRS’s Direct File program – which allows taxpayers to file their taxes for free directly with the agency – on day one of his new administration. […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Thursday that it reached a major milestone in fiscal year (FY) 2024 by resolving a longstanding significant deficiency in its information system controls 11 years after it was identified. […]

The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) watchdog found in a report out last week that the tax agency does not have “sufficient oversight” of the privacy and security of taxpayer data used in its Free File program. […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced this week that its Direct File tool will be available in 12 additional states for the 2025 tax season, making the free e-filing service available in a total of 24 states. […]

The IRS is teaming up with state tax agencies and software and financial industries firms on a new initiative to combat steep upticks in fraudulent attacks on taxpayers and tax systems.  […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) isn’t adequately overseeing and managing the decommissioning of legacy systems, according to a recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).   […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants to expand its use of authentication services that employ the Login.gov sign-on service developed by the General Services Administration (GSA), but the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said in a July 23 report that IRS is facing security hurdles in that process.   […]

The IRS’s Direct File pilot program that the agency conducted earlier this year proves the value in prototyping products in the Federal government before they are fully scaled up, the project’s product lead said during the Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda event on July 10. […]

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. […]

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. […]

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. […]

With the IRS taking a wide range of steps to advance its technological capabilities, IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told lawmakers today that the agency’s focus on data security remains a key priority moving forward. […]