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John KoskinenCommissionerInternal Revenue Service
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
Increasing Self-service Options for the Taxpayers
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
The IRS will increase taxpayer satisfaction by delivering high-quality, timely, innovative, and consistent customer service to better address taxpayer needs, reduce burden, and encourage voluntary compliance. Using analytics and a user-centric approach, IRS will develop online options as part of its multi-channel service model. This APG’s objective is to deliver the enabling infrastructure and next wave of digital services to allow taxpayers to navigate the tax system, understand and meet their tax obligations, and conduct their business in the most efficient and effective manner. As a result of delivering better service to all taxpayers, the IRS brand will benefit by reflecting the attributes of transparency, fairness, trustworthiness, accessibility, and innovation.
Key Factors:
Enabling Infrastructure and Digital Products/Services are subject to schedule agreement with IRS Business and IT.
This APG aligns to the Treasury Strategic Plan Objective 5.4: Create a culture of service through relentless pursuit of customer value.
Strategies
- Deliver a taxpayer-centric user experience: Through the use of sophisticated analytics, the IRS will uncover insights that allow it to service taxpayers by meeting their channel preferences and expectations. Increased focus on user needs will help design better digital products which match taxpayer needs within a consistent and easy-to-use experience.
- Improve search, content, products, and services: The complexity of tax laws requires taxpayers to be able to easily search, find, and understand important information. To that end, good web search and plainly written content are primary methods towards more voluntarily compliance. Many transactions currently conducted by customers in high cost channels can be migrated to self-service or lower cost channels.
- Design and build enabling infrastructure: There are many enabling infrastructure elements which are critical to the adoption of taxpayer online services. E-Authentication, web portals, and secure document are three important examples of critical enablers which will provide scalability, security, and capacity in support of future service areas.
- Process and policy changes: IRS recognizes that enhancements to the customer service delivery model and a shift towards digital services requires changes to existing business processes and policies, especially in the areas of privacy, security, data management, and authentication. To that end, the IRS will identify, early on, critical business processes and policies subject to change, and involve all affected parties in defining a future state that is scalable for a broad suite of use cases.
- Promote, elicit trial, and drive adoption of new services: Once new service options are built, migrating taxpayers to behave differently will require a consistent marketing and promotional effort, not unlike the launches of other consumer products. Example marketing/promotion activities include:
- Planning and internal/external communications
- Offering incentives to try and use new services; providing disincentives to not use existing higher-cost channels
- Piloting at a smaller scale with specific taxpayer segments and tax administration partners to gauge interest, use, and adoption
- Coordinating across channels drive awareness and adoption
- Ensuring consistency in messaging across all channels
- Measuring the success of such campaigns
- Monitor and manage performance: The IRS will establish and monitor new measures of digital self-services. These will focus on taxpayer adoption, ease of use, completion and conversion of digital transaction, and speed of end-to-end transaction (e.g., from the moment the customer is notified electronically or searches for information on a tax obligation through completion of a transaction in response to the obligation). Equally important, existing measures of performance may no longer be relevant and will need to be reassessed.
- Streamline IT development of digital services, reduce time-to-market, and coordinate funding process: IRS recognizes the need for the creation of a faster product development process that allows us to develop, launch, learn, and iterate. Example tactics include:
- Designing simpler products to be piloted on a smaller scale for specific taxpayer segments
- Streamlining the development process for online applications via rapid prototyping techniques
- Testing taxpayer use and adoption
- Using soft launches in coordination with the tax administration partners
- Gathering useful feedback to inform future improvements for broader launches
- Use third party partnerships to accelerate, complement, and deliver better service: The IRS recognizes the important role of third parties and the use of “indirect” channels across the tax ecosystem. The success of IRS’ eFiling initiative is a good example of how external third parties have helped to deliver a better filing experience for the taxpayer. By collaborating with private and public sector partners, the IRS can increase selected customer service reach and level of service while providing better options to taxpayers.
- Build and foster a culture of “digital first” across the enterprise: Communicating, empowering, and fostering a digital first culture across the IRS is key to the implementation and long-term adoption of new ways of providing customer service focused on digital options. The IRS will do so by enlisting leadership support, identifying change champions, and inculcating the workforce with online service best practices and understanding of how digital self-service provides the IRS an opportunity to better meet today’s taxpayer needs and improve customer satisfaction.
Progress Update
The IRS met the goal of introducing self-service and electronic-service taxpayer options to enable taxpayers to securely authenticate, view, and print tax records online, pay outstanding debts, enter into installment agreements, establish powers of attorney, get tax law information, and easily access all parts of IRS.gov. Over the course of the past two years, the IRS has launched thirteen releases of nine online products addressing some of the highest volume needs that citizens have when they interact with IRS. These digital products enable taxpayers to securely access IRS tools, create payment agreements and make payments online, view tax records, and search for tax assistance.
Treasury will continue this as a FY 2016-2017 APG to advance the progress made during the last two years. Over the coming months, the IRS will finalize a modified, more secure version of eAuthentication in response to the fraudulent infiltration of Get Transcript. IRS is also planning to pilot and release an Online Account that will allow taxpayers to access account balance information, transcripts, and payment tools in a mobile-friendly, integrated experience. The IRS also aims to pilot a Taxpayer Digital Communication (TDC) solution that will allow authenticated users to receive digital notices, interact with secure messages, and transfer digital documents to and from the IRS via a secure communication portal.
The progress that IRS has made in launching these tools, as reflected in this Agency Priority Goal, highlights the work of many people, including IRS employees, strategic partners, and the broader community. The IRS will continue to focus on encouraging more people to choose digital service, enabling them to successfully complete their transactions online, and delivering these services as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.
FY 2014 Product Deliveries:
|
Product/Service Name |
Anticipated Go Live |
Status |
|
IRS Direct Pay |
Filing Season 2014 |
Launched 11/2013 |
|
e-Authentication, Release 2 |
Filing Season 2014 |
Launched 01/2014 |
|
Get Transcript |
Filing Season 2014 |
Launched 01/2014 |
|
IRS2Go Mobile, Release 4 |
Filing Season 2014 |
Launched 01/2014 |
|
Online Payment Agreement |
3rd Quarter FY 2014 |
Launched 04/2014 |
|
FATCA FFI Lookup Tool |
3rd Quarter FY 2014 |
Launched 06/2014 |
|
Payment Mix Comparison Tool |
4th Quarter FY 2014 |
Launched 07/2014 |
FY 2015 Product Deliveries:
|
Product/Service Name |
Anticipated Go Live |
Status |
|
Payments Mix Comparison Tool, Release 2 |
2nd Quarter FY 2015 |
Launched 02/15 |
|
Return Preparer Lookup Tool |
1st Quarter FY 2015 |
Launched 01/15 |
|
Get Transcript Release 2 |
1st Quarter FY 2015 |
Delayed indefinitely |
|
IRS2Go Mobile Version 5 |
1st Quarter FY 2015 |
Launched 01/15 |
|
Third Party Data Services |
2nd Quarter FY 2015 |
Launched 02/15 |
|
IRS Direct Pay Release 3 |
2nd Quarter FY 2015 |
Launched 03/15 |
|
Online Payment Agreement Release 2 |
2nd Quarter FY 2015 |
Launched 03/15 |
Detailed Progress
The IRS has recently launched several self-service applications allowing taxpayers to pay a balance due or other tax obligation online, authenticate their identity online, and view and print a transcript. Additionally, the IRS has expanded the use of the “out-of-wallet” pilot for taxpayer verification and enhanced the IRS mobile application, IRS2Go, with increased functionality. Below are the online interactive tools, and their capabilities, that launched since the start of fiscal year 2014:
IRS Direct Pay (Launched in FY 2014 Q1)
Provides a low-friction electronic payment option to enable taxpayers to make payments from their bank account without any fees in a single session. Payment scheduling and payment lookup features have also been added to this new electronic payment option for individual taxpayers.
Release 3.3 (Launched FY2015 Q4):
In FY15 Q4, enhancements were made to Direct Pay to improve the user experience and address defects. Additionally, a Spanish-language version was released and email confirmations were added.
• In FY 2014 Q1, Direct Pay collected more than $4 million
• In FY 2014 Q2, Direct Pay collected more than $25 million
• In FY 2014 Q3, Direct Pay collected more than $1.075 billion
• In FY 2014 Q4, Direct Pay collected more than $1.654 billion
• In FY 2015 Q1, Direct Pay collected more than $1.318 billion
• In FY 2015 Q2, Direct Pay collected more than $3.022 billion
• In FY 2015 Q3, Direct Pay collected more than $10.604 billion
• In FY 2015 Q4, Direct Pay collected more than $4.004 billion
e-Authentication
Provides taxpayers a user-friendly and low-cost way to securely access and use IRS online tools and applications. Since launch, more than 13 million online authentications have occurred.
Release 2: (Launched in FY 2014 Q2)
Release 2 added knowledge-based authentication as a risk mitigation layer to the standard Level of Assurance 2 protocols.
• In FY 2014 Q2, over 1.5 million successful authentications occurred and over 860,000 user accounts were created (460,000 profiles and 400,000 guests)
• In FY 2014 Q3, over 2.5 million successful authentications occurred and over 1.36 million user accounts were created (750,000 profiles and 610,000 guests)
• In FY 2014 Q4, over 3.2 million successful authentications occurred and over 900,000 user accounts were created (530,000 profiles and 380,000 guests)
• In FY 2015 Q1, over 1.2 million successful authentications occurred and over 675,000 user accounts were created (450,000 profiles and 220,000 guests)
• In FY 2015 Q2, over 5.2 million successful authentications occurred and over 2.61 million user accounts were created (1.75 million profiles and 860,000 guests)
• In FY 2015 Q3, over 3.6 million successful authentications occurred and over 1.6 million user accounts were created (1.3 million profiles and 369,000 guests)
Note: Get Transcript was taken offline on May 21, 2015.
The number of user accounts created this quarter excludes eAuthentication accounts created in May for Get Transcript, as well as accounts created in May and June for IP-PIN.
• In FY 2015 Q4, over 418 thousand successful authentications occurred.
Get Transcript (Launched FY 2014 Q2)
Provides a current digital display of an individual’s tax record across five transcript types. Since launch, more than 45 million transcripts have been generated through this application.
• In FY 2014 Q2, 5.8 million transcripts were generated
• In FY 2014 Q3, 7.6 million transcripts were generated
• In FY 2014 Q4, 5.1 million transcripts were generated
• In FY 2015 Q1, 4.4 million transcripts were generated
• In FY 2015 Q2, 14.7 million transcripts were generated
• In FY 2015 Q3, 8.6 million transcripts were generated
• In FY 2015 Q4, no transcripts were generated because the product was taken offline on May 22, 2015. See the Next Steps section for further information.
Note: Get Transcript was taken offline on May 21, 2015.
IRS2Go Mobile Application
Enables taxpayer self-service access to IRS information and services anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
Release 4 (Launched FY 2014 Q2):
Release 4 included an enhanced user experience, a new tablet view, and a free preparer lookup tool.
Release 5 (FY 2015 Q2):
Developed IRS2Go as native Android and iOS mobile apps to provide better user experience. The design was updated for multiple size factors and a mobile payments feature was added
• Since release 4, IRS2Go has been downloaded more than 4.2 million times and users have engaged in over 105 million sessions on the app.
Enhanced Online Payment Agreement (Launched FY2014 Q3)
The Online Payment Agreement (OPA) application allows a taxpayer the ability to set up an Installment Agreement online for taxes due to the IRS if they cannot pay their taxes in full. The application allows an individual, business, or an authorized representative (Power of Attorney) to apply for an installment agreement.
Release 1 (Launched FY 2014 Q3):
Enables users (individual taxpayers and some businesses) to establish installment agreements online, including: Direct debit installment agreements, Payroll deduction installment agreements, and Routine (monthly) installment agreements.
Release 2 (Launched FY 2015 Q2):
Improved the user experience for a number of functions including setting up direct debit, logging-in and authenticating, and providing better access for business users. IMF authentication was moved to the eAuthentication method.
• Since launch, more than 340,000 agreements have been completed representing more than $1.3 billion in revenue from web transactions
FATCA FFI Search and Download Tool (Launched FY 2014 Q3):
Provides a downloadable and searchable list of all Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) that have registered with the IRS.
• Since launch, the tool has completed more than 2.9 million search queries with more than 220,000 list downloads
Payment Mix Comparison Tool (Launched FY 2014 Q4)
This tool will encourage accurate reporting by payment recipients (according to Form 1099-K) and help close the Tax Gap.
Release 1 (Launched FY 2014 Q4):
Allows preparers (on behalf of the business taxpayer community) to compare the portion of gross receipts from card receipts the business plans to report, to results of similar businesses from prior years.
Release 2: (Launched 2nd Quarter of FY 2015)
This update provides new tools for tax professionals, including tax year 2013 segmentation tables and updated business logic to accommodate for these new tables.
• There have been over 1,300 sessions since launch
Return Preparer Lookup Tool (Launched FY 2015 Q2)
Provides a searchable list by location of return preparers that have registered with the IRS.
• Over 282,000 searches have been performed since launch
Third Party Data Services (Piloted FY 2015 Q2)
Enables IRS to share taxpayer data with third parties (tax preparation firms, tax preparation software, and state and federal agencies) that require individual taxpayer information. All information sharing requires prior taxpayer consent.
• For the 2015 IRS Third Party Refund Status API pilot project, with the help of 7 volunteer third parties, the IRS processed over 900,000 transactions during the 2015 filing season, representing more than 70,000 taxpayers. After providing consent, these taxpayers were able to receive the status of their 2015 IRS refund directly from their tax providers.
Next Steps
No Data Available
Expand All
Performance Indicators
Application Success Rate
Service Interactions Processed Electronically
Cost of Taxpayer Interaction by Channel
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
IRS
No Data Available
