As tax relief attorneys, we regularly deal with the Collections branch of the IRS.  It has been our experience that collection offices across the United States tend to be understaffed, and their personnel often lack sufficient training to work their cases efficiently.

According to a report released yesterday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the IRS Office of Procurement may have bigger problems than Collections . . . but they’re not sure. The Procurement Office is charged with the task of acquiring goods and services to help the IRS meet its mission.  TIGTA is concerned that Procurement may not have enough personnel and that the personnel they do have may not have the skills needed to appropriately spend the $2 billion they have budgeted to spend each year.  This is the actual wording of the report; they “may” not — they don’t know for sure because the Office of Procurement has not been able to identify its acquisition workforce.  They know the number of personnel within the Procurement Office, but there are other IRS employees on the outside that remain unaccounted for.

In other words, there is an unidentified number of IRS employees buying stuff without proper supervision and likely without proper training.  This report confirms the IRS’ image as an immense  bureaucracy that can’t keep track of its own personnel.