Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog reports that the IRS has scrapped it’s plan to create a new website after investing $19.5 million dollars of taxpayer funds in it.
According to a report from the Treasury Inspector General on Tax Administration (TIGTA),
The IRS planned to complete the new portal environment by November 2008; however, in June 2008, the IRS Chief Information Officer cancelled the Project before it was completely developed. Reasons for the cancellation included the lack of a comprehensive enterprise strategy that considered industry best practices or advancements in portal technology, and budget challenges due to the significant expenditure requirements necessary to replace existing equipment. Subsequent to the Project being cancelled, the IRS hired a contractor to assist in developing an enterprise portal business strategy.
The IRS planned to launch two new projects, the My IRS Account project and a new release of the Modernized e-File project, in the new portal environment. However, because the New Portal Implementation Project was cancelled, the IRS had to expend $9.7 million for new equipment and upgrades to the existing portal capacity to operate projects dependent on the portals, including the My IRS Account and Modernized e-File projects. In addition to extraneous expenses, purchasing new equipment for portal capacity upgrades prior to development of an enterprise portal business strategy increases the risk that new equipment may not integrate with the new portal environment once it is developed.
I wonder how much health insurance $19.5 million would buy?
This is more evidence that the government will not get serious about reducing wasteful spending as long as it knows it can increase taxes to fund its incompetence.
We should put a moratorium on tax increases until current levels of waste are substantially reduced.
Related Posts:
Op-Ed on Tax Increases: The Government Doesn’t Deserve a Raise
Carl Hiaason is a Rich Guy Who Wants to Pay More Taxes
4 responses so far ↓
1 Will Federal Healthcare be as Inefficient as IRS? // Sep 14, 2009 at 12:30 pm
[...] IRS Wastes $19.5 Million of Taxpayers’ Money [...]
2 Why Can’t We Have Higher Taxes, France Does? // Oct 25, 2009 at 12:13 pm
[...] [...]
3 Brookings Institute: Pay for Tax Cuts // Feb 16, 2010 at 10:27 am
[...] IRS Wastes $19.5 Million of Taxpayers’ Money [...]
4 Professor Maule Says Conservatives Who Want to Cut IRS Funding are Trying to Take Down Government // Mar 4, 2011 at 1:14 pm
[...] IRS Wastes $19.5 Million of Taxpayers’ Money [...]
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