[jdross]

8,500 IT workers in the IRS is insane.

They barely have any products, and they contract externally for so much other work

[munk-a]

They have worked recently to implement a self-hosted tax submission system and given their rate of return while there may be some mismanagement it is one of the most provably efficient organizations in the government netting 415$ for every dollar of funding in 2024.

[bomewish]

Isn’t that a completely bizarre metric though in this instance??! It is specifically the revenue generating arm of the government. If it wasn’t running at a “surplus” that would be very concerning indeed.

[jdross]

I'm not saying we shouldn't have an IRS, and I think IRS agents are probably one of the best ROI gov't employees possible, but 8,500 IT engineers and managers (who I have heard literally didn't even know how to code) makes no sense at all

[arcologies1985]

They built IRS Direct File which was a huge improvement. Then the administration killed it to serve tax prep companies.

[jdross]

Do you know how many people 8,500 employees in IT alone is? Google, all of it, has 60,000 engineers

IRS direct file is just not that complex, I promise you, and are you sure it was even built in house vs contracted?

[ThunderSizzle]

Already could file free with free tax usa.

Not that impressive.

I'd be more impressed we got rid of income tax on salaried people entirely, or permit families the same type of deductions that businesses get, and only tax my actual profit - I can't deduct my overpriced housing, or my utilities unless I have a home office for ny own business.

[justinator]

They have 150 million paying "customers" (not including businesses) and bring in $5 trillion+ yearly.

[IncreasePosts]

Consider that many millions of those "customers" need to hire a professional for hundreds/thousands of dollars to properly interact with the IRS.

[tokyobreakfast]

The public sector is where you need 12 people (and a project manager) to build an Access database.

[cdrnsf]

And the private sector is how the US has arrived at a miserable, unworkable healthcare system and an out of control carceral system.