'Tax Design Challenge' Winners Crowned

The IRS has announced the winners of its first crowdsourcing competition, the “Tax Design Challenge,” that encouraged innovative ideas for the taxpayer experience of the future.

Out of 48 submissions, winners from California, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., were among those selected in categories covering overall design, taxpayer usefulness and best financial capability.

The three-week competition invited the public to imagine the taxpayer experience of the future and specifically design an online experience that better organizes and presents a person’s tax information.

The effort was done in coordination with the Mortgage Bankers Association and engaged teams of designers, developers and innovators nationwide to envision options for taxpayer interactions.

The winners are:

  • Overall Design: 1st Place -- Andrew Miller, “IRS MyService,” San Francisco. 2nd Place -- Andrea Angquist, “IRS 365,” San Francisco.
  • Best Taxpayer Usefulness: 1st Place -- Andrew Miller, “IRS MyService,” San Francisco. 2nd Place -- Andrea Angquist, “IRS 365,” San Francisco.
  • Best Financial Capability: 1st Place -- Sam Nguyen and Vidhika Bansal, “taxes,” Washington D.C. 2nd Place -- Dante Vono, “MyTax Online,” Minnesota.

In the first category, the first prize was $10,000, and second was $5,000; in the latter two categories, first place paid $2,000 and second place $1,000. Monetary prizes were funded exclusively by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Participants were challenged to organize and present tax data in new ways that make tax information easier to understand and use.

For more, visit www.challenge.gov.

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