Budget in Brief

Fiscal Year

2022

Publication 9940 Catalog Number 23819V Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov
Internal Revenue Service

Program Summary by Budget Activity

FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022

Budget Activity Operating Plan 1 Operating Plan 2 Request $ Change % Change 

Taxpayer Services $2,535,554 $2,587,606 $2,940,876 $353,270 13.65%

Pre-filing Taxpayer Assistance and Education 647,066 657,618 713,346 55,728 8.47%

Filing and Account Services 1,888,488 1,929,988 2,227,530 297,542 15.42%

Enforcement $4,909,500 $5,004,622 $5,462,823 $458,201 9.16%

Investigations 648,819 698,193 773,605 75,412 10.80%

Exam and Collections 4,081,409 4,120,886 4,497,709 376,823 9.14%

Regulatory 179,272 185,543 191,509 5,966 3.22%

Operations Support $3,885,000 $4,104,102 $4,448,195 $344,093 8.38%

Infrastructure 881,670 886,713 971,008 84,295 9.51%

Shared Services and Support 990,690 1,024,654 1,088,217 63,563 6.20%

Information Services 2,012,640 2,192,735 2,388,970 196,235 8.95%

Business Systems Modernization $180,000 $222,724 $305,032 $82,308 36.96%

Subtotal Internal Revenue Service $11,510,054 $11,919,054 $13,156,926 $1,237,872 10.39%

Reimbursables 179,652 179,759 189,645 9,886 5.50%

Offsetting Collections - Non Reimbursables 6,728 21,300 22,472 1,172 5.50%

User Fees 485,997 585,244 435,400 (149,844) -25.60%

Recovery from Prior Years 16,457 16,764 16,764 

Recoveries Paid 3,604 3,604 

Unobligated Balances from Prior Years 171,189 318,017 327,299 9,282 2.92%

Transfers In/Out 137 140 140 

Resources from Other Accounts 123,039 98,153 (24,886) -20.23%

Total Program Operating Level $12,370,214 $13,166,921 $14,250,403 $1,083,482 8.23%

Direct FTE 73,240 73,409 79,348 5,939 8.09%

Reimbursable FTE 790 808 (808) -100.00%

Offsetting Collections - Non Reimbursables 834 834 

User Fee FTE 4 1,536 86 (1,450) -94.40%

Recovery from Prior Years

Recoveries Paid

Unobligated Balances from Prior Years 385 15 15 

Resources from Other Accounts 274 434 434 

Total FTE 74,693 76,202 80,717 4,515 5.93%

Dollars in thousands

FY 2021 TO FY 2022

2 FY 2021 Operating Plan includes a $176 million interappropriation transfer from Enforcement to Operations Support and a $32 million transfer from Enforcement to Taxpayer Services to cover anticipated 

operations and maintenance requirements in FY 2021.

Note: This table does not include the $15 million in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) (P.L 116-127), $750.7 million under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act 

(P.L. 116-36), the $509 million provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260), the $1.86 billion provided by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) (P.L. 117-2), the $417 million Program Integrity 

Allocation Adjustment, and the $79 billion mandatory funding proposal.

1 FY 2020 Operating Plan amounts for Other Resources represent actuals.
Summary

The IRS FY 2022 budget request is $13.16 billion, $1.24 billion (10.4 percent) more than 

the FY 2021 enacted level of $11.92 billion. 

It includes total program increases totaling $915.46 million that includes resources for 

the following categories: Putting Taxpayers First ($176.09 million); Ensure Fairness of the 

Tax System ($340.27 million), Improve Live Assistance ($318 million), IT Modernization 

($78.14 million) and Electrical Vehicles ($2.96 million). It funds costs associated with the 

FY 2021 and FY 2022 pay raises and an increase in Federal Employment Retirement 

System contributions. It proposes a program integrity allocation adjustment of $417

million in FY 2022 and additional adjustments through FY 2031 to generate and protect 

$50 billion in revenue over 10 years and cost approximately $7 billion resulting in an 

estimated net savings of $43 billion. In addition, the Budget includes a multi-year 

initiative to improve tax compliance and enforcement, modernize IRS IT systems, 

support increased information reporting, and support the Administration's proposal to 

make the Child Tax Credit expansion and the advance payments permanent as well as

additional authority to improve tax administration. 

In accordance with the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act 

(GPRAMA) of 2010, the Department of the Treasury is currently developing the FY 2022 

– 2026 Departmental Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan is scheduled for publication in 

2022. The Annual Performance Plan will be updated in the FY 2023 President’s Budget to 

reflect new departmental strategic goals and objectives. IRS will publish a component 

plan that aligns bureau activities and priorities to the Department’s by the spring of 

2022. 

In FY 2020, the IRS delivered a successful filing season that opened January 27, 2020 but

due to the pandemic, extended to July 15, 2020. During the 2020 filing season, the IRS:

• Processed about 145 million individual tax returns and issued more than 100 million 

refunds totaling more than $276 billion with an average individual refund of $2,034. 

Almost 96.9 percent of these individual returns were filed electronically;

• Achieved a 53.1 percent filing season level of service (LOS), the relative success rate 

of taxpayers calling the toll-free line for assistance, 11.5 percent below the target of 

60 percent;

• Answered more than 35 million calls, with 10 million being answered by IRS assistors 

and over 25 million being answered through automation;

• Served approximately 537,000 taxpayers face-to-face in the Taxpayer Assistance 

Centers (TAC). More than 715,000 taxpayers called the IRS’s TAC appointment line 

resulting in around 364,000 appointments being scheduled. Approximately 351,000

taxpayers had their issues resolved without having to make an appointment; and
• Received 1.4 billion visits to the IRS.gov website with 469 million Where’s My 

Refund? completions. This represents a 164 percent increase in the use of IRS.gov 

and a 31 percent increase in Where’s My Refund? compared to the same period 

during 2019.

IRS FY 2022 Budget Highlights

Dollars in Thousands

Bureau: Internal Revenue Service 

Summary of FY 2022 Request $000 FTE $000 FTE $000 FTE $000 FTE $000 FTE

FY 2021 Operating Plan $2,587,606 25,989 $5,004,622 34,989 $4,104,102 12,037 $222,724 394 $11,919,054 73,409

Changes to Base:

Maintaining Current Levels (MCLs) $75,138 $148,473 $100,219 $4,165 $327,995

Pay Annualization (1.0% average pay raise) 5,930 11,650 4,699 163 22,442

Pay Raise (2.7% average pay raise) 48,152 94,603 38,157 1,327 182,239

Non-Pay 4,138 6,725 42,546 2,232 55,641

FERS Contribution Increase 16,918 35,495 14,817 443 67,673

Efficiencies/Savings ($5,494) (409) ($91) ($5,585) (409)

Increase e-File Savings (5,494) (101) (91) (5,585) (101)

Personnel Savings (308) (308)

Subtotal FY 2022 Changes to Base $69,644 (409) $148,473 $100,128 $4,165 $322,410 (409)

FY 2022 Current Services $2,657,250 25,580 $5,153,095 34,989 $4,204,230 12,037 $226,889 394 $12,241,464 73,000

Program Increases:

Putting Taxpayers First 35,459 55 36,294 96 104,333 143 176,086 294

User Authentication 27,000 27,000

Taxpayer Experience Strategy 8,459 55 36,294 96 104,333 143 149,086 294

Ensure Fairness of the Tax System 270,858 1,820 69,409 13 340,267 1,833

Improve Live Assistance 248,167 4,203 69,833 318,000 4,203

Integrated Modernization Business Plan 78,143 18 78,143 18

Electric Vehicles and Associated Infrastructure 2,576 390 2,966

Subtotal FY 2022 Program Increases $283,626 4,258 $309,728 1,916 $243,965 156 $78,143 18 $915,462 6,348

Total FY 2022 Request (Before PIAA) $2,940,876 29,838 $5,462,823 36,905 $4,448,195 12,193 $305,032 412 $13,156,926 79,348

Dollar/FTE Change FY 2022 Request over FY 2021 Operating Plan $353,270 3,849 $458,201 1,916 $344,093 156 $82,308 18 $1,237,872 5,939

Percent Change FY 2022 Request over FY 2021 Operating Plan 13.65% 14.81% 9.16% 5.48% 8.38% 1.30% 36.96% 4.57% 10.39% 8.09%

PIAA Program Increases

Increase Audit Coverage 109,317 1,028 39,493 15 148,810 1,043

Increase Collection Coverage 113,122 1,164 46,334 20 159,456 1,184

Expand Coverage in the Tax-Exempt Sector 29,952 244 7,998 37,950 244

Enhance Return Review Program 3,388 60 34,953 38,341 60

Enhance Enforcement Operations 31,673 23 667 32,340 23

Subtotal FY 2022 PIAA Investments $287,452 2,519 $129,445 35 $416,897 2,554

Total FY 2022 Request Including PIAA $2,940,876 29,838 $5,750,275 39,424 $4,577,640 12,228 $305,032 412 $13,573,823 81,902

Dollar/FTE Change FY 2022 Request Including PIAA over FY 2021 Operating Plan $353,270 3,849 $745,653 4,435 $473,538 191 $82,308 18 $1,654,769 8,493

Percent Change FY 2022 Request Including PIAA over FY 2021 Operating Plan 13.65% 14.81% 14.90% 12.67% 11.54% 1.59% 36.96% 4.57% 13.88% 11.57%

TAXPAYER SERVICES ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS 

SUPPORT BSM TOTAL
Budget Adjustments

Base Adjustment...................................................................................... $0 / 0 FTE

The FY 2021 enacted level of $11.9 billion is the base of this budget.

 

Maintaining Current Levels (MCLs)....................................... +$327,995,000 / 0 FTE 

Pay Annualization (1.0%) +$22,442,000 / 0 FTE 

Funds are requested for annualization of a 1% average pay raise implemented in 

January 2021.

Pay Raise (2.7% in FY 2022) +$182,239,000 / 0 FTE 

Funds are requested for a 2.7% average pay raise effective January 2022.

FERS Contribution Increase +$67,673,000 / 0 FTE 

Funds are requested for the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) contribution 

rates effective FY 2022.

Non-Pay +$55,641,000 / 0 FTE 

Funds are requested for non-labor expenses such as travel, contracts, rent, 

supplies, and equipment.

Efficiencies/Savings.............................................................. -$5,585,300 / -409 FTE

Increase e-File Savings -$5,585,300 / -101 FTE 

The IRS projects a total of 1,426,500 fewer returns filed on paper (752,200 individual and

674,300 business returns). As a result, the IRS will need 101 fewer FTE in submission 

processing, generating a savings of $5.6 million.

Personnel Savings $0 / -308 FTE

Although the budget request increases staffing resources to support strategic priorities, 

the IRS must manage its personnel costs through limited attrition replacement and 

seasonal workforce adjustments across many operational areas. These adjustments are 

necessary to fund the $328 million in inflationary and labor cost increases for existing 

personnel, including annualization of the FY 2021 pay raise, the proposed FY 2022 pay 

raise, employee promotions, and employee retirement contributions. To achieve these 

savings, the IRS plans to:

• Fill critical vacancies only; 
• Streamline the workforce by reducing administrative, analyst, and other support 

positions; and

• Realign mission critical occupations by hiring employees who have the 

background and skills to support the IRS in meeting its strategic goals, objectives, 

and priorities.

 

Program Increases........................................................ +$915,462,000 / +6,348 FTE

Implementing the Taxpayer First Act +$176,086,000 / +294 FTE 

Implementing the Taxpayer First Act dramatically change how the IRS engages with 

taxpayers. These efforts will improve the experience of taxpayers as they interact with 

the IRS and increase the IRS’s ability to secure taxpayer information, protect taxpayer 

identities, develop additional online capabilities for taxpayers, and develop 

comprehensive training for IRS employees. This investment includes:

• $27 million to add increased security and flexibilities to how the IRS identity 

proofs and authenticates taxpayers to allow secure access to taxpayer online 

services such as Identity Protection (IP) PINs in accordance with NIST standards;

and

• $149.09 million to develop and implement a Taxpayer Experience Strategy to 

improve the American taxpayer’s experience with the IRS through expanded 

digital services, increased multilingual services, and an increased presence in hard 

to reach communities.

Ensure Fairness of the Tax System +$340,267,000 / +1,833 FTE 

A successful economy depends on an effective tax collection system. In order for a tax 

system to operate productively, all citizens must pay their fair share. The IRS must 

facilitate taxpayers’ voluntary compliance to deter those who might evade their legal tax 

obligations. Highlights of the investment include:

• $154.87 million to increase the audit coverage rate of large corporations (with 

balance sheet assets > $10 million), pass-through entities, and high-wealth 

individuals with adjusted gross income of more than $10 million. Currently, this 

audit rate is half of what it was in FY 2010;

• $41.09 million to expand oversight of cyber-crimes and allow for applied data 

analytics which IRS can leverage to connect the most remote financial transaction 

between apparent disparate actors which can be the key piece of evidence to 

break open the most complex financial investigation;

• $13.47 million to enhance taxpayer confidence in the tax-exempt sector which is 

essential to preserving and protecting charitable tax deductions and the 

retirement savings of everyday Americans;
• $32.90 million to addresses pre-refund audit coverage;

• $77.06 million for additional examination and collection employees to increase 

the individual audit and collection coverage rates; and

• $20.87 million to enhance overall enforcement efforts, increase the number of

convictions and expand the IRS’s capabilities in core tax enforcement areas.

Improve Live Assistance +$318,000,000 / +4,203 FTE 

Highlights of the investment include:

• $265.46 million increase the telephone level of service to approximately 75 

percent and significantly reduce the correspondence inventory. The IRS toll-free 

telephone customer service operation is one of the world’s largest and is a key 

part of the IRS’s service delivery;

• $21.18 million to reduce a reduce a projected FY 2021 ending correspondence 

level of about 1.4 million by 400,000; and

• $31.36 million to increase staffing levels for IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers. This 

investment will restore office hours, increase the number of appointments 

available, and will improve the taxpayer experience.

IRS Integrated Modernization Business Plan +$78,143,000 / +18 FTE 

Modernization is an IRS priority. The plan will enable the IRS to provide consistently 

superior service to taxpayers and deliver long-term budget efficiencies as the IRS 

modernizes capabilities currently provided via legacy applications. This investment is in 

addition to the $1 billion in IT Modernization funds that the IRS received in the 

American Rescue Plan. The 2022 requested level of $ $305.03 million includes:

• $105 million for the Customer Account Data Engine(CADE) 2 project to continue 

replacing legacy code established almost 60 years ago;

• $64 million for Enterprise Case Management to establish a common cloud 

infrastructure, automate business functions, and enable seamless case transfers;

• $30 million for web applications to provide taxpayers and tax professionals a 

digital service channel to establish and manage taxpayer/tax professional 

authority relationships;

• $10 million for Taxpayer Digital Communications Outbound Notification Project 

which provides digital notices available through a secure online account for 

taxpayers who prefer that channel over mailed correspondence; 

• $15 million for the live assistance program to expand customer callback 

capabilities on IRS phone lines;

• $15 million to modernize IRS infrastructure base and support software 

development;

• $20 million to improve security integration in system development and enhance 

data protection through encryption;
• $19 million to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to tax data;

• $12 million to deliver a next generation secure operations center and block 

network access for unauthorized users; and

• $15 million to provide engineering management capabilities essential to 

delivering a large, complex modernization program, and in management 

reserves.

Electric Vehicles and Associated Infrastructure +$2,966,000 / +0 FTE 

• For FY 2022, the IRS – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) will receive $2,576,000 to 

fund the initial investment of its fleet to EV. Of that money, a to be determined 

amount will be allocated to the purchase, installation, maintenance, and/or 

upgrade of infrastructure required to maintain an EV fleet management program. 

Currently, IRS-CI has a total of 2,294 vehicles in its fleet, of which zero are EVs. 

• For FY 2022, the IRS Facilities Management and Security Services (IRS-FMSS) will 

receive $390,000 to fund the initial investment of its fleet to EV. Of that money, a 

to be determined amount will be allocated to the purchase, installation, 

maintenance, and/or upgrade of infrastructure required to maintain an EV fleet 

management program. Currently, IRS-FMSS has a total of 246 vehicles in its fleet, 

of which zero are EVs. 

Legislative Proposals

The FY 2022 budget request includes tax administration legislative proposals. 

Increase Oversight of Paid Tax Return Preparers

The proposal would amend Title 31, U.S. Code (Money and Finance) to provide the 

Secretary with explicit authority to regulate all paid preparers of Federal tax returns, 

including by establishing mandatory minimum competency standards.

The proposal would be effective on the date of enactment.

Increase penalties on ghost preparers

The proposal would increase the penalty amount to the greater of $500 per return or 

100 percent of the income derived per return by a ghost preparer. The proposal would 

also increase the limitations period during which the penalty may be assessed from 

three years to six years.

The proposal would be effective for returns required to be filed after December 31, 

2021.
Introduce Comprehensive Financial Account Information Reporting to Improve 

Tax Compliance

This proposal would create a comprehensive financial account information reporting 

regime. Financial institutions would report data on financial accounts in an information 

return. The annual return will report gross inflows and outflows with a breakdown for 

physical cash, transactions with a foreign account, and transfers to and from another 

account with the same owner. This requirement would apply to all business and 

personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment 

accounts1, with the exception of accounts below a low de minimis gross flow threshold 

of $600 or fair market value of $600. 

Other accounts with characteristics similar to financial institution accounts will be 

covered under this information reporting regime. In particular, payment settlement 

entities would collect Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) and file a revised Form 

1099-K expanded to all payee accounts (subject to the same de minimis threshold), 

reporting not only gross receipts but also gross purchases, physical cash, as well as 

payments to and from foreign accounts, and transfer inflows and outflows.

Similar reporting requirements would apply to crypto asset exchanges and custodians. 

Separately, reporting requirements would apply in cases in which taxpayers buy crypto 

assets from one broker and then transfer the crypto assets to another broker, and 

businesses that receive crypto assets in transactions with a fair market value of more 

than $10,000 would have to report such transactions.

The Secretary would be given broad authority to issue regulations necessary to 

implement this proposal.

The proposal would be effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022.

Enhance Accuracy of Tax Information

Expand the Secretary’s authority to require electronic filing for forms and returns

Electronic filing would be required for returns filed by taxpayers reporting larger 

amounts or that are complex business entities, including: (1) income tax returns of 

individuals with gross income of $400,000 or more; (2) income, estate, or gift tax returns 

of all related individuals, estates, and trusts with assets or gross income of $400,000 or 

more in any of the three preceding years; (3) partnership returns for partnerships with 

assets or any item of income of more than $10 million in any of the three preceding

1Current income reporting by financial institutions would be expanded to all entities, including certain corporations. Interest 

payments would be included in the loan account reporting. Transferee information would be reported for all real estate transactions 

on Form 1099-S.
years; (4) partnership returns for partnerships with more than 10 partners; (5) returns of 

REITs, REMICs, RICs, and all insurance companies; and (6) corporate returns for 

corporations with $10 million or more in assets or more than 10 shareholders. Further, 

electronic filing would be required for the following forms: (1) Forms 8918, “Material 

Advisor Disclosure Statement”; (2) Forms 8886, “Reportable Transaction Disclosure 

Statement”; (3) Forms 1042, “Annual Withholding Tax Return for U.S. Source Income of 

Foreign Persons”; (4) Forms 8038-CP, “Return for Credit Payments to Issuers of Qualified 

Bonds”; and (5) Forms 8300, “Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade 

or Business.”

Return preparers that expect to prepare more than 10 corporation income tax returns or 

partnership returns would be required to file such returns electronically.

The Secretary would also be authorized to determine which additional returns, 

statements, and other documents must be filed in electronic form in order to ensure the 

efficient administration of the internal revenue laws without regard to the number of 

returns that a person files during a year.

Improve information reporting for reportable payments subject to backup withholding

The proposal would also treat all information returns subject to backup withholding 

similarly. Specifically, the IRS would be permitted to require payees of any reportable 

payments to furnish their TINs to payors under penalty of perjury. The proposal would 

be effective for payments made after December 31, 2021.

Implement A Program Integrity Allocation Adjustment and Provide Additional 

Funding for Tax Administration

The Administration proposes a multi-year adjustment to the discretionary spending 

allocation for the IRS Enforcement and Operations Support accounts. The total 

adjustment would be $6.7 billion over the budget window. The proposed allocation 

adjustment for 2022 would fund $417 million in enforcement and compliance initiatives 

and investments above current levels of activity. The adjustment would cover inflation 

and the cost to sustain the new initiatives and investments through 2031.

In addition, the Administration proposes to provide the IRS $72.5 billion in mandatory 

funding over the budget window. A portion of these proposed IRS resources would fund 

improvements and expansions in enforcement and compliance activities. The proposed 

mandatory funding would also provide the IRS with resources to enhance its 

information technology capability, including implementation of the proposed financial 

information reporting regime, and to strengthen taxpayer service.
The proposal would direct that additional resources go toward enforcement against 

those with the highest incomes, rather than Americans with actual income of less than 

$400,000.

Details about these IRS funding programs are provided elsewhere in the Budget.

IRS Centralized Services Fund / Working Capital Fund

The Budget includes appropriations language to establish a working capital fund for IRS 

centralized services. The fund will allow the IRS to achieve cost savings, promote 

economies of scale, establish more consistent processes and policies, and improve how 

it delivers facility services, technology, and other centralized services for its business 

units. For FY 2022, the fund proposes to start with several pilot projects that would test 

use of the fund, including potentially IT development and operations projects, facilities 

projects, and/or postage funding.
IRS Performance Highlights

Budget Activity Performance Measures FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Target

FY 2022 

Target

Pre-Filing Taxpayer 

Assistance and Education

Enterprise SelfAssistance Participation 

Rate (ESAPR)

82.0% 85.4% 90.6% 89.0% 89.0%

Filing and Account Services

Customer Service 

Representative (CSR) 

Level of Service (LOS)

75.9% 65.4% 53.1% 32.0% 75.0%

Investigations Criminal Investigations 

Completed 3,051 2,797 2,624 2,600 2,600

Investigations Conviction Rate 91.7% 91.2% 90.4% 92.0% 92.0%

Exam and Collections Exam Efficiency -

Individual 131 109 76 111 117

Information Services Percentage of Aged 

Hardware 45.5% 31.0% 16.0% 20.0% 20.0%

Description of Performance

In FY 2020, the IRS continued to provide quality service to taxpayers and to enforce the 

laws with integrity and fairness. The IRS continued to deliver improvements in key areas, 

including international, tax exempt, refund fraud, and identity theft. These 

accomplishments are in addition to the IRS significant accomplishments in administering 

Economic Impact Payments, implementing major tax law changes including business 

tax relief, providing administrative relief to taxpayers while the IRS faced operational 

challenges to protect the health and safety of its employees. For additional information, 

please reference the Treasury Coronavirus Relief, Response, Aid, and Recovery Programs 

Congressional Justification. 

Taxpayer Services

The IRS strives to deliver high quality and timely service to taxpayers and stakeholders

and help them understand and meet their tax obligations. The IRS:

• Achieved a 67.4 percent business e-file rate;

• Delivered a fiscal year telephone LOS of 53.1 percent; 

• Answered more than 35 million calls; and

• Answered over 90 percent of account questions over the telephone correctly.

The IRS continues to improve and expand its outreach and educational services through 

partnerships with state taxing authorities, volunteer groups, and other organizations. 

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) sites 

provided free tax assistance for the elderly, disabled, and limited English proficient 

individuals and families.
The IRS’s toll-free telephone line is one of the world’s largest customer service phone 

operations. In March 2020, the IRS suspended customer service phone operations in 

response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, the IRS gradually began resuming CSRassisted phone lines. For FY 2020, the IRS delivered a 53.1 percent CSR LOS, which 

measures the relative success rate of taxpayers who call the toll-free number and 

connect with an assistor. The IRS will lower its FY 2021 CSR LOS target to 32 percent 

resulting from the increased work due to the delivery of the EIPs and a dramatic increase 

in call volume. A large increase in usage of IRS.gov helped to compensate for 

disruptions in the CSR service. IRS.gov had the 22 highest traffic days in history, all in the 

window of April 13 through May 5. The FY 2022 LOS target is set at 75 percent.

The IRS continues to improve taxpayer services by developing and improving selfassistance tools. In FY 2020 ESAPR was 90.6 percent, exceeding the target of 82 percent. 

Total services increased 26.8 percent and self-assisted services increased 34.5 percent 

compared to the prior year. The applications having the highest increases are Interactive 

Tax Assistant (128 percent), Where’s My Refund (37.1 percent), Get Transcript Online 

(74.6 percent). The ESAPR FY 2021 and FY 2022 target is set at 89 percent.

Enforcement

In FY 2020, the IRS collected $51.1 billion through enforcement programs, a return on 

investment (ROI) of about $5 to $1. This number is likely understated, since the ROI 

estimate does not include the revenue effect of the indirect deterrence value of IRS 

enforcement programs.

The IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) investigates potential criminal violations of the 

Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes, such as money laundering, currency 

violations, tax-related identity theft fraud, and terrorist financing that adversely affect 

tax administration. In FY 2020 CI completed 2,624 criminal investigations, achieved 

1,187 convictions with a rate of 90.4 percent, and achieved a Department of Justice case 

acceptance rate of 91.6 percent and a U.S. Attorney case acceptance rate of 92.4

percent, which compares favorably with other federal law enforcement agencies.

The Examination program provides taxpayers top quality service by helping them 

understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity 

and fairness. In FY 2020, Exam Efficiency - Individual (the number of closures divided by 

the total Exam FTE) was 76, below the target of 115 and down 30 percent from FY 2019, 

primarily due to the pandemic. The effects of the COVID-19 shutdown drove closures 24.9 

percent lower than FY 2019 while filings continued to rise. The IRS set a target of 111 in 

FY 2021 and a target of 117 in FY 2022. IRS will continue to monitor starts and inventory 

to meet future targets.
Operations Support

The Percentage of Aged Hardware measure shows the quantity of IT hardware in 

operation past its useful life as a percentage of total hardware in use. The IRS made 

considerable progress reducing the percentage of aged hardware from 31 percent at 

the end of FY 2019 to 16 percent at the end of FY 2020. The major driver in exceeding 

this goal was the large volume of refreshed workstations. For FY 2021, IT will utilize an 

Enterprise Demand Management tool to improve processing efficiency by increasing the 

visibility of overall IT demand for aged infrastructure refresh. The target will be set at 20 

percent for FY 2021 and FY 2022.

Business Systems Modernization

In FY 2020, the IRS made considerable progress toward modernization. Some key 

accomplishments were: 

• Completed approximately 64,000 lines of code of the CADE 2 conversion from 

Assembly Language Code (ALC) to Java—bringing the completion to-date to over 

128,000 lines of code converted;

• Procured a cloud based, commercial-off-the-shelf platform and delivered the first 

increment of Enterprise Case Management, making the new platform ready for 

use. Within six months of the contract award, IRS effectively worked the first case 

in production. Deployed Application Programming Interface for certain e-Services 

used by tax professionals, including a new auto enrollment functionality for the 

Transcript Delivery System, Taxpayer Identification Number Matching and the 

Secure Object Repository. We successfully enabled access to the new 

functionality for more than 50 external customers, making it more convenient to 

self-register and securely receive requested data in real-time while significantly 

reducing administrative burden;

• Reduced IRS aged hardware to approximately 16 percent, a significant 

improvement since FY 2017 when aged hardware was estimated to be over 64 

percent;

• Standardized how the IRS delivers servers, reducing delivery times from an 

estimated 7,200 minutes on average to 28 minutes; and

• Used robotic process automation to modify active procurement contracts, 

resulting in a time savings of 2,788 hours per year and automated the monitoring 

of small business offer in compromise agreements has now automated the 

manual process of monitoring agreements, saving approximately 26,800 hours of 

manual work per year and reducing the risk of human error.

In FY 2021, IRS plans to build on its FY 2020 successes. In addition to its base resources, 

the IRS plans to use the $1.0 billion it received in the American Rescue Plan to address 

foundational needs in the areas of applications, infrastructure, security, data and 
workforce to enable a modernized IRS IT shop and to accelerate and/or initiate business 

and taxpayer-facing modernization capabilities.