Oversight Board Endorses IRS Plan

Washington (May 17, 2004) -- The Internal Revenue Service’s new “Five-Year Strategic Plan” received a qualified endorsement from the IRS Oversight Board -- a move that opens the door for the tax service to release a final version of the plan before the end of this year, but calls on the agency to make changes to it in 2005.
 
The plan, which was developed by the IRS with input from the oversight board and leaders of the accounting profession, is intended to “provide guidance and direction for IRS managers and employees.”
 
Although the board approved the new plan charting the direction of the IRS until 2010, the group asked the IRS to amend the blueprint during the coming year to include “long-term quantitative goals to provide clarity and measure progress” by the agency.
 
“The IRS, like any major organization, needs a few clear, specific goals that are understood throughout the organization if it is to succeed,” IRS Oversight Board chair Nancy Killefer said. “At the same time, these goals must reinforce our nation’s expectations of our tax administration’s system.”
 
The board gave the tax service an additional year to incorporate performance goals in its strategic plan, because the IRS National Research Program's findings about tax compliance won't be available until 2005, and the data may be useful in setting “reasonable objectives” for the tax service.
 
-- Ken Rankin