Page 149 - IRS Plan
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Ø Monitoring shortfalls limit the IRS’s ability
to address the gap between taxes owed The IRS has been forced to operate
and collected. The tax gap is currently with limited resources, limiting
estimated to be approximately $496 billion its ability to operate effectively
and is expected to increase without significant
investment. 25 In addition to the tax gap as
currently measured, there is likely outstanding Ø The IRS’s foundational technology
tax revenue attributable to higher-risk is outdated and limited in its ability to
segments. The IRS has historically lacked the deliver. Underfunding of the IRS over the last
resources to address noncompliance in these decade has made us unable to introduce
segments. Because of limited compliance contemporary technology tools and applications
coverage in areas such as complex partnership that would allow us to better serve taxpayers
structures and certain international tax issues, and enhance their experience. The funding
the IRS has fewer data points to accurately available had to be prioritized to address more
estimate the true size of the tax gap in these immediate and urgent projects rather than to
segments. enable the transformation that the IRS wanted,
and taxpayers deserved.
Ø Global tax authorities are using innovative
ways to focus enforcement on high-priority Ø These complex legacy systems pose
segments. Post-filing, tax administrators in challenges to modern technology enablement.
G-20 countries are increasingly introducing Currently, many of these challenges stem from
tailored treatments to address noncompliance, running the IRS with extremely complex legacy
including, for example, predictive analytics technology that is difficult to update, maintain
to better understand which issues are likely and operate. Modern technologies that the IRS
to self-correct versus those that will likely will develop and implement in coming years will
require a more direct treatment to get address challenges with digital tax filing and
resolved. 26
142 IRS IRA Strategic Operating Plan
Part V: Context and Background
