Audit teams continue to perform on-site walkthroughs at the Ogden, Utah, and Kansas City, Missouri, Tax Processing Centers to meet with staff to discuss challenges they are facing as it relates to addressing the ongoing backlogs of inventory. A major concern that surfaced during these walkthroughs was the lack of working printers and copiers. IRS management estimated that, as of March 30, 2021, 69 (42 percent) of 164 devices used by the Submission Processing functions are unusable and others are broken but still functioning.

 

IRS employees stated that the only reason they could not use many of these devices is because they are out of ink or because the waste cartridge container is full. The contract for supplies and service of the printers ended in September 2020. However, due to COVID-19, these printers remain in the Tax Processing Centers, and the IRS is continuing to use them. The employees we spoke with stated that the IRS entered into a new contract in October 2020 to obtain new printers from a different provider. However, they indicated that the new contractor may not have been coming into the sites to replace the old printers due to COVID-19 concerns.

 

The lack of working printers and copiers affects many different areas of the IRS but has an especially significant effect on the Return and Income Verification Services functions. For example, in Kansas City, Missouri, this function normally has 10 printers and copiers available to use. As of March 22, 2021, only three of the 10 devices were working. These devices are needed to make copies of tax returns to fulfill requests for tax documents from taxpayers and other institutions. The employees we spoke with were concerned that they would have a work stoppage if these remaining devices became unfunctional. This issue has been an ongoing challenge since March 2020.

 

When we discussed this issue with IRS management on March 30, 2021, they indicated that they are working with the IRS Information Technology organization to resolve the issue, and that organization has started replacing the devices.