Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

In our latest report, we documented key events that showed how the IRS transferred incorrect Federal Tax Information (FTI) to the Department of Education that potentially affected 7.2 million federal student aid form requests. --- The IRS Transferred Incorrect FTI to the Department of Education for Federal Student Aid 📝 Why did we do this audit? A December 2019 law allowed the IRS to disclose certain FTI to the Department of Education. The law streamlined the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application process for students, parents, and borrowers by enabling them to request that the IRS disclose their tax information to the Department of Education when applying for federal student aid. In April 2024, the Department of Education publicly announced the IRS was transferring incorrect taxpayer data to the FAFSA application system. Transferring incorrect FTI could lead to inaccurate Student Aid Index calculations, interruption of students’ financial aid offers, as well as delayed major educational decisions for applicants who applied for federal student aid. We assessed the IRS’s processes and procedures for disclosing taxpayer data to the Department of Education. 🔍 What did we find? The IRS developed an application programming interface that connects with a system at the Department of Education to transmit FTI for student aid requests. We found that the IRS transferred incorrect FTI due to an incorrect business requirement implemented during development. This resulted from the cross-functional project team not using a data dictionary as required. The IRS subsequently reprocessed approximately 7.1 million previously received FAFSA Form requests and provided the updated FTI to the Department of Education. IRS document standards require that data specifications be created for data structures. Data structures consist of all files, records, groups, and items used by a system. These data details must be defined in a data dictionary. We determined that the IRS does not have a data dictionary for these data sources and without one, cannot ensure that programming errors are avoided. The IRS’s data repositories are complex and contain sensitive taxpayer data that must be secure. This environment poses unique challenges when establishing accurate and secure data sharing agreements. The inaccurate data exchange with the Department of Education represented a fraction of taxpayers and was limited to tax information for education. A recent Executive Order aims to remove barriers and promote inter‑agency data sharing. We believe it is important that lessons learned from existing data sharing agreements inform similar future arrangements to help prevent the transfer of inaccurate taxpayer data. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/ezERrfhg

In our latest reports, we did an annual assessment of IRS IT and reviewed whether firearms and ammunition assigned to coordinators in IRS Criminal Investigation are accurately inventoried and properly stored and safeguarded. Read the summaries: https://lnkd.in/epipdhGW

The annual tax return filing season is a critical time for the IRS. It's when most individuals file their tax returns and contact the IRS if they have questions. Our latest report has the interim results of IRS's efforts to timely and accurately process individual paper and electronically filed (e-filed) tax returns during the 2025 Filing Season. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/es2av2qP

Eight Charged in Federal Crackdown on Treasury Check Fraud Read more: https://lnkd.in/enSt99yG

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Did you have a recent experience interacting with the IRS and think it could be something potentially affecting lots of taxpayers? If so, let us know. Our mission is to make sure the nation's tax system works effectively and point out ways the IRS can fix it. Submit your suggestion, and we'll see if we can make it the focus of a future project. https://lnkd.in/ggXgQNur

Twice a year, we issue a report to Congress packed with six months of our accomplishments. It's our Semiannual Report to Congress, and we just issued our latest. It's a great way to catch up on our work and learn more about TIGTA and how we protect the nation's tax system. It has short summaries of our most impactful reports and investigative work, like uncovering a scheme that used stolen identities to deposit fraudulent U.S. Treasury checks. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/eVrf-eeH

Here's a quick recap of what we found when we evaluated how the IRS notified individual and business taxpayers affected by a large-scale data breach and the agency's progress expanding the use of electronic signature services on non-tax forms. https://lnkd.in/ehF6XBPn

Here's a quick recap to get you caught up on what we found when we reviewed IRS's oversight of tax-exempt hospitals and the agency's use of artificial intelligence to select returns and issues for examination. https://lnkd.in/dbXsFDX6

The IRS still has not satisfied the Payment Integrity Information Act goal to reduce improper payment rates to less than 10% in four high-risk programs. ---- We're required to annually assess and report on improper payment requirements contained in the Payment Integrity Information Act. For FY 2024, the IRS calculated improper payment estimates for four programs considered high-risk because they have improper payments that exceed $100 million annually. The total amount of improper payments in these four programs totaled $21.4 billion. The Department of the Treasury Agency Financial Report attributes the causes of refundable tax credit errors to factors such as the complexity of the eligibility rules, inability to verify taxpayer-provided information prior to issuing refunds, lack of correctable error authority, and a requirement to issue refunds within 45 days. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/gsyBf2aN