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Published:   |   Last Updated: January 30, 2025

Advocate for the IRS to be fully transparent and provide specific details on its progress toward implementing the Strategic Operating Plan (SOP), including its efforts to modernize technology and strategically implement AI, and to produce clear and timely guidance and information to taxpayers, tax professionals, industry, and other stakeholders.

Objective

Background

Technology is not the only area of concern for IRS transparency. The IRS must be proactive in issuing guidance on tax law that is clear and timely and that adequately reflects input from stakeholders while fully complying with the notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act.26 As the IRS continues to implement its Strategic Operating Plan (SOP), it needs to provide stakeholders with meaningful updates on its progress without overstating successes or minimizing setbacks. These updates must include performance metrics and specific deadlines that objectively report progress toward all initiatives in the SOP, not just modernization efforts the IRS currently prioritizes.

Highlights

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Status

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Expected Completion Date

09/30/2025

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Activites

Activity 1: Make internal recommendations through TAS’s cross-functional working groups and the IRS Advisory Counsel and external recommendations through public speeches, blogs, Reports to Congress, and other avenues that the IRS be transparent when providing updates on its plans for modernization and its progress toward meeting modernization initiatives.

Activity 2: Through membership on the Data and Analytics Strategic Integration Board, the AI Assurance Team, or other cross-functional groups involved in AI oversight, review IRS uses of AI to ensure that they comply with government-wide standards on taxpayer rights and data privacy.

Activity 3: Conduct listening sessions and other forms of outreach with external stakeholders to identify areas in which the IRS has not provided taxpayers with guidance and information that is timely and clear and that adequately incorporates stakeholder feedback. Use internal meetings, blogs, and Reports to Congress to advocate for the IRS to promptly address these issues.

Activity 4: Participate on cross-functional teams implementing the IRS Inflation Reduction Act Strategic Operating Plan, evaluate planned initiatives, and make administrative recommendations to maximize protection of taxpayer rights and minimize IRS burden imposed on taxpayers. Participate on cross-functional teams implementing the IRS Inflation Reduction Act Strategic Operating Plan, evaluate planned initiatives, and make administrative recommendations to maximize protection of taxpayer rights and minimize IRS burden imposed on taxpayers.

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Actions Completed

1st Quarter

TAS established an internal Artificial Intellegence (AI) Collaborative Team that convenes monthly to discuss the IRS’s role in the AI landscape. The team is currently managing three active Information Gathering Projects (IGPs) focused on:

1. Researching the IRS’s use of AI, including compliance initiatives developed or derived from AI and data analytics models, with an emphasis on identifying and addressessing potential biases.
2. Examining how the tax industry and broader business community leverage AI for online filing services.
3. Investigating how the IRS protects and utilitizes its own data, as well as its approach to using data acquired from third parties to enhance compliance and outcomes.

TAS has embedded two represetnatives in the IRS AI Assurance Team (AIAT). This cross-functional team plays a critical role of ensuring the IRS adheres to all relevant AI policies, regulations, and ethical standards. Addtionally, TAS released a blog that details how stakeholders can use TAS’s Systemic Advocacy Managment System (SAMS) to submitt issues of concern. TAS also held listening sessions with external stakeholders to discuss each of the ten Most Serious Problems (MSP) affecting the IRS. The feedback gathered during these sessions is documented in the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) which includes recommendations for the IRS to promptly address.

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Next Steps

TAS will continue to work within the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Collaborative Team and gather additional research.

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