In a review of Internal Revenue Service efforts to determine whether charitable and non-profit organizations are being used to divert funds to support terrorist activities, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration suggested a number of steps the Criminal Investigation Division could take to improve counterterrorism efforts.
TIGTA said that the CI Division might be missing an opportunity to identify additional individuals potentially involved with terrorist-related activities by not using a more comprehensive terrorist watch list when screening ITIN [Individual Taxpayer Identification Number] applications.
As a result, TIGTA recommended that the chief, ITIN Program, Wage and Investment Division coordinate with applicable stakeholders to evaluate the feasibility of using Terrorist Screening Center information when screening ITIN applications to improve the identification of individuals potentially involved with terrorist-related activities.
Other recommendations included establishing additional business measures to assess the value of the Counterterrorism Lead Development Center’s contributions to the counterterrorism program, and ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to the counterterrorism program by more fully tracking expenditures and developing a budget for internal use. IRS management agreed with all of the recommendations.
