TIGTA: 64% Of The IRS's Information Technology Is Beyond Its Useful Life

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released Sixty-Four Percent of the Internal Revenue Service's Information Technology Hardware Infrastructure Is Beyond Its Useful Life (2017-20-051):

The overall objective of this review was to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of key ongoing or planned activities aimed at addressing the IRS operational challenge of replacing its aged hardware infrastructure.

While the Sustaining Infrastructure Program spends on average nearly 99.7 percent of its allocated budget each year, the IRS has not yet achieved its stated objective of reducing its aged information technology hardware to an acceptable level of 20 to 25 percent. In fact, this percentage has steadily increased from 40 percent at the start of Fiscal Year 2013 to 64 percent at the start of Fiscal Year 2017. The IRS estimates that the current replacement cost for its aged information technology hardware is approximately $430 million.

Aged information technology hardware still in use introduces unnecessary risks. TIGTA analyzed 107 incident tickets most likely to involve aged hardware failures in Fiscal Year 2016 and found that the aggregate length of time to resolve the issues was approximately 4,541 hours. These aged hardware failures may have also had a negative effect on IRS employee productivity, security of taxpayer information, and customer service.