IRS Unveils Revamped Web Site

The Internal Revenue Service took the wraps off its new Web site Thursday, with new navigation and language features.

The IRS began offering a sneak preview of the home page of the new site last week (see IRS Previews Redesigned Web Site). New technology on the Web site promises to deliver services at a faster pace to keep pace with increasing demands for online services from the IRS. Among the changes will be more non-English content in five different languages: Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. A language menu will be available on every page to enable non-English speakers to access content on the site in their native language.

The IRS has analyzed usage of the IRS.gov site and identified the most visited pages and most used tools. The main navigation has been modified to accommodate the primary needs of getting critical information about filing, payments, refunds, credits and forms.

The IRS eventually plans to add new search capabilities to better tag and target content to deliver the most relevant and meaningful search results to visitors to IRS.gov. In addition, related forms and publications will be featured in a separate section on the search results page.

The IRS plans to use the promotional banner on the Web pages to feature timely and relevant information, updates and tools. The banner will provide a more dynamic experience designed to put the most important tools and services front and center so users can reach them more quickly.

However, a variety of IRS services will be unavailable over the Labor Day holiday weekend to accommodate a planned electrical upgrade at one of the IRS’s facilities (see IRS Services Down over Labor Day). The outage will last from 1 a.m. ET on Thursday, August 30, to 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 4. It will allow the installation of a new power grid, as well as routine operation and maintenance programs.

Among the unavailable services will be all toll-free services, including the e-help desk and the Practitioner Priority Service; the e-Services suite, including Disclosure Authorization, Transcript Delivery and TIN Matching (beginning Friday afternoon); and  Modernized e-file and the Legacy systems (beginning Friday afternoon).