IRS Inflation Reduction Act Industry Day: The Strategic Operating Plan; Agile Development; and Human-Centered Design
In late February, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hosted its IRS Inflation Reduction Act Industry Day, which provided insights into the agency’s overall strategic priorities related to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
At the event, the IRS put its Strategic Operating Plan front-and-and center, as well as showcased its vision for enhancing its capabilities to leverage new innovations for best meeting constituents’ needs.
Martin Davis, Senior Solutions Architect at Makpar, attended the event and came back with these three key takeaways from the IRS Inflation Reduction Act Industry Day:
It’s All About the IRS Strategic Operating Plan: Virtually every speaker at the event mapped back their discussions to key sections within the IRS Strategic Operating Plan. The vision of the plan is to serve as the framework for how the agency will use the up to $79.4 billion in additional funding provided by the IRA to transform tax administration and services to taxpayers and tax professionals.
A Focus on Businesses: The IRS has had much success creating online engagement with individuals and tax professionals through the launch of Secure Access Digital Identity (SADI), which Makpar helped to launch. Now the agency is shifting its focus towards engaging businesses and performing more transactions online. The agency recently launched web services for sole proprietors and is now focusing on S-Corporations. It is also increasing its enforcement and compliance review operations.
Human-Centered Design for Taxpayer Engagement: Human-centered design will play a major role in the development of innovations that offer a “frictionless 360 taxpayer experience.” The goal is to engage with taxpayers where they are and in the manner they expect, and often through self-service solutions.
Other key themes that resonated at the event is that IRS taxpayer notices need to be streamlined and concise, as well as how industry members need to take a hands-on approach to training IRS agents on new innovations. The agency is also focused on increasing its enforcement capabilities, especially when dealing with digital assets and international compliance.
As a trusted partner to the IRS, Makpar uses “Design Thinking,” which includes Human-Centered Design (HCD), User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI) and User Adoption (UA) through its Innovation Lab.
These combined elements all put the human user at the center of IT development, which can help support the IRS in its journey to meet the requirements of its Strategic Plan.
Makpar is excited to see the IRS share these insights with its industry partners. Contact us here for more information on how we can help develop new innovations for enhancing the taxpayer experience.