The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that the IRS has been stalling progress on a decade-old plan to consolidate and eliminate outdated computer systems. In 2024 alone, the IRS spent almost $40 million on these systems, though the IRS has allegedly been developing its modernization project since 2015. 

These outdated computer systems are part of the IRS’s greater legacy system for managing tax cases and have previously been under fire by TIGTA. In 2022, the IRS created a decommission strategy to address the issue, yet still in 2025, around 63% of case management systems remain a part of the legacy. 

Not only did the IRS not prioritize the decommission after vowing it would, but in May 2024, the agency opted to “update” that policy instead. Alarmingly, the updated version completely omitted the process for retiring legacy case management systems, causing millions more in taxpayer dollars to be lost to the maintenance and operation of these ineffective and inefficient systems. 

Read the full report here. 

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