Open Recommendations

Create integrity checks within SSA systems that result in alerts or exceptions for scenarios where the 5-month waiting period was applied incorrectly.

The Director, Collection Policy, SB/SE Division, should revise the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) to require revenue officers to check their mail and faxes for any CDP levy hearing requests prior to issuing levies.

The Director, Field Collection, SB/SE Division, should ensure that the following instances identified in this report are discussed with responsible employees and their managers so that they understand the difference and can protect taxpayer’s rights: instances associated with CDP hearings being input as equivalent hearings; instances associated with cases being transferred to a new revenue officer before the prior revenue officer had processed a timely CDP levy hearing request; instances associated with new employees and CDP hearings; instances associated with revenue officers improperly processing ICS systemic levies as other, incorrect types of levies; and instances associated with taxpayers not receiving…

The Director, Collection Inventory and Delivery and Selection, SB/SE Division, should implement a programming fix to ensure that the ICS does not allow levies to be issued on Business Master File taxpayers who have an open CDP levy hearing.

The Director, Collection Policy, SB/SE Division, should provide training to remind revenue officers that for manually created balance due modules within the ICS, they must manually verify the CDP levy notice was timely issued and that the modules are not part of an open CDP hearing prior to levy. In addition, revise the IRM to require that revenue officers document the ICS history with confirmation that required notices were provided prior to issuing a levy on a manually created balance due module.

The Director, Collection Inventory and Delivery and Selection, SB/SE Division, should submit programming maintenance fix requests to ensure that: (1) the ICS does not allow modules to be included on a levy unless a CDP levy notice has been issued, even if both the notice generation tool and the levy generation tool are open at the same time and (2) the ICS systemic levy check does not allow levies to be sent until 31 days after the CDP levy notice date rather than 30 days.

The Director, Field Collection, SB/SE Division, should ensure that the taxpayers who were not given the opportunity for a CDP hearing are given their CDP rights, if appropriate; and obtain authorization to retain any improper levy proceeds or refund the proceeds to the taxpayer.

The Director, Field Collection, SB/SE Division, should ensure that the instances identified in this report that are associated with unauthorized representatives receiving CDP levy notices due to various revenue officer errors are discussed with the responsible employees and their managers so that they can protect taxpayer’s rights and prevent unauthorized disclosures. These employee’s managers should consider the failure to observe written regulations, orders, rules, or procedures that result in the violation of improper disclosure of tax return information when evaluating employees’ performance or for misconduct if such action on the part of the employee is intentional.

The Director, Collection Policy, SB/SE Division, should determine the cause of the technology error that allowed CDP levy notices to be sent to unauthorized representatives and consider if a programming change is needed to prevent this error from recurring.

The Director, Field Collection, SB/SE Division, should ensure that for the instances identified in this report that are associated with representatives not receiving CDP levy notices when they were authorized, a Letter 5427 is sent to the taxpayer notifying them that their representative is not receiving notices, if appropriate.

The IRS Human Capital Officer should review the 23 miscoded cases with management to ensure that a proper analysis of the potential FTCP violation is conducted and the correct issue code is applied.

The IRS Human Capital Officer should strengthen controls to ensure that all potential FTCP violations are consistently identified when entering cases into ALERTS.

The Director, Collection, SB/SE Division, should clarify guidance to ensure that all potential FDCPA § 805(b) third-party disclosure violations are reported on the PCA CARs.

The Director, Field Collection, SB/SE Division, should report the potential I.R.C. § 6304 FTCP violations we identified in our EQRS reviews to a Labor Relations specialist for investigation.

The Director, Field Collection, SB/SE Division, should ensure that all Collection job aids include instructions to report potential FTCP violations to a Labor Relations specialist per IRM 1.4.50.3.2.3.

Establish procedures for Appeals officers to verify and document, as part of the law and administrative review, whether any prohibited levy action was taken on the subject tax modules for which a taxpayer requests a levy CDP hearing.

Establish procedures for Appeals managers conducting case reviews to specifically review the law and administrative review performed by the Appeals officer to determine if it was conducted appropriately.

The Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, should systemically review for taxpayers in our population who may have had funds taken with a designated payment code other than that of the Federal Payment Levy Program or Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Levy Program and who were not made whole.

The Chief, IRS Independent Office of Appeals, should require for CDP hearings that prohibited levies are recorded in the Case Activity Reports.

We recommend the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer, in coordination with DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer, establish and implement cloud configuration standards for the selected High Value Asset systems in accordance with DHS configuration guidance.

We recommend the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer develop and implement compliance scan guidance for the selected ICE cloud-based platform in accordance with applicable requirements.

We recommend the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer ensure that the vulnerabilities identified in our assessments were remediated in a timely manner or that a Plans of Action and Milestones was created according to DHS and ICE policies.

We recommend the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer develop a process to ensure scans for the selected High Value Assets are performed, reviewed, and verified according to applicable requirements.

We recommend the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer update the security baseline policy with sufficient guidance to ensure the accurate review and approval of the system baseline documentation for the selected High Value Asset systems.

We recommend the ICE Office of the Chief Information Officer update and improve security baseline processes to ensure system baseline documentation is accurate and up to date for selected the High Value Asset systems.