A May 2016 GAO report released in May 2016 says a lot just by its title—Information Technology: Federal Agencies Need to Address Legacy Systems (GAO-16-696T; 5/25/16).
Per the GAO:
Individual Master File – The authoritative data source for individual taxpayers where accounts are updated, taxes are assessed, and refunds are generated. This investment is written in assembly language code—a low-level computer code that is difficult to write and maintain—and operates on an IBM mainframe.
Here are photos of the IBM 1401 mainframe— perhaps this is what the IRS still has. And check this out from the Computer History Museum.
No surprise, the GAO recommends that government agencies update their technology.
Wow!!!
What do you think? How can the IRS get its systems updated given all of the data it has and the continual processing it engages in and the tremendous security issues it faces? And insufficient funding?
By the way, the photo used in the blog post is something I used in elementary school. All of the students had them. And—it’s newer than the IRS technology!!
Annette Nellen, CPA, Esq., is a professor in and director of San Jose State University’s graduate tax program (MST), teaching courses in tax research, accounting methods, property transactions, state taxation, employment tax, ethics, tax policy, tax reform, and high technology tax issues.
Annette is the immediate past chair of the AICPA Individual Taxation Technical Resource Panel and a current member of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the California Bar. Annette is a regular contributor to the AICPA Tax Insider and Corporate Taxation Insider e-newsletters. She is the author of BNA Portfolio #533, Amortization of Intangibles.
Annette has testified before the House Ways & Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee, California Assembly Revenue & Taxation Committee, and tax reform commissions and committees on various aspects of federal and state tax reform.
Prior to joining SJSU, Annette was with Ernst & Young and the IRS.
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