IRS Rolls Out Risky Tax Processing Systems

GovIT Geek writes to tell us that, despite known security issues, the IRS has decided to roll out two new applications for tax processing systems. "The [IRS inspector general] concluded in a September annual audit that security weaknesses in the agency's updated tax processing systems could enable malicious intruders to gain unauthorized access to taxpayer information and prevent the IRS from recovering applications during an emergency. The Customer Account Data Engine is a tax processing tool being deployed in phases to replace the existing repositories of taxpayer information, while the Account Management Services systems aim to provide employees with faster and better access to taxpayer account data."

Comments

Re:Inflammatory Article

[truthsearch]

In addition, these should be purely internal systems. So assuming malicious intruders can be kept out, using a separate layer of systems, the risk is greatly reduced.

The IRS is now irrelevant.

[jcr]

The money the federal government takes from us by direct taxation is dwarfed by the theft through inflation. They can't raise trillions through taxes, they can only do it by further devaluing the currency.

-jcr

Treat the IRS Like a Bank

[KalvinB]

One of the frustrating things as a tax payer is not knowing how much I owe the government. I don't know if I'm overpaying or underpaying until the end of the year. Then I'm either screwed because I owe them a pile of cash or screwed because I wasted a lot of money that could have been better invested. Last year I gave the government 3000 extra which could have stayed as a cushion in a bank account or have been invested rather than getting it back with no interest.

Tax payers should be able to log into their IRS account and see what they owe throughout the year based on what their earnings are and how much has been taken out of their paychecks already. Throughout the year they can enter in deductions and extra earnings and whatnot so at the end of the year there isn't a surprise. It'd be nice to make extra payments if you want before April so that you don't get a huge tax bill or get no tax bill at all in April.

Re:Treat the IRS Like a Bank

[moderatorrater]

Last year I gave the government 3000 extra which could have stayed as a cushion in a bank account or have been invested rather than getting it back with no interest.

Does that mean you should be thanking them?

Re:Treat the IRS Like a Bank

[wbren]

Last year I gave the government 3000 extra which could have stayed as a cushion in a bank account or have been invested rather than getting it back with no interest.

Given the state of the markets, overpaying the IRS might be the safest thing to do with your money.

Tax payers should be able to log into their IRS account and see what they owe throughout the year based on what their earnings are and how much has been taken out of their paychecks already.

Yes, they should definitely be able to do that. Two problems. First, relatively few people would use that feature enough to justify the cost of building it. Second, the IRS will never put a system like that in place on their own, because they make money from keeping people in the dark. The IRS is given a giant interest-free loan from the American people every year. If I were them, I wouldn't advertise it either...

Re:Treat the IRS Like a Bank

[Thaelon]

No no no, take another step back.

There should be no income tax: The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. -- Albert Einstein

Re:Treat the IRS Like a Bank

[Ig0r]

Ron Paul!

Re:Inflammatory Article

[compro01]

Hold off upgrading their systems until the new system is 100% rock-solid?

Yes. This is taxes they're dealing with, and given the unreasonable complexity of the tax laws and the guilty-until-proven-innocent way the tax courts work (how the hell is that considered constitutional?), screwups are NOT acceptable.

Re:Inflammatory Article

[Anonymous Coward]

What are they supposed to do? Hold off upgrading their systems until the new system is 100% rock-solid? Sorry, but every new software system has SOME bugs in it.

Two things (simplified):

A - Yes, they should. And SQL bug at your library might put a book on the wrong shelf; the same bug in a table at the IRS leads to audits, tax fraud investigations, and has serious implications on your life. A program in such a high profile program absolutely needs to be as bug free as possible.

B - This isn't even about bugs in implementation, the issue is a security vulnerability due to the design. You'll secure your email so some packet snooper can't see the pictures from that party last night, but you're comfortable with the IRS rolling out a system that would allow the same snooper to interfere with the recording of billions of dollars in transactions?

MOAIT

[Nom du Keyboard]

This will be the MOAIT (Mother Of All Identity Thefts) when it's hacked.