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Washington, D.C.—Despite the congressional mandate not to close any of its Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) during the 2006 tax-filing season, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) apparently is continuing to consider such closings as a cost-cutting measure, the head of the union representing IRS employees said today.

The warning of potential closings is contained in the second of three planned reports on IRS customer service operations by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

Last year, the agency said it would close 68 TACs nationwide—but that plan was shelved after a nationwide protest led by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). At NTEU’s urging, Congress restricted IRS customer service cutbacks until TIGTA had reviewed and reported on their impacts.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the most recent TIGTA report shows again why the IRS is foolhardy in believing it can justify closing any of its TACs. “This latest TIGTA report,” Kelley said, “clearly shows that the IRS lacks the management information necessary to provide adequate oversight of its TAC operations—much less make a decision to close any of them.”

She accused the IRS of seeking to generate a self-fulfilling promise: namely, to justify the closings of TACs by pointing to reduced usage by taxpayers at the same time that the agency is making it harder for taxpayers to use the TACs by reducing TAC hours and services. She called that “a backhanded and disgraceful way to conduct business.”

In its first report responding to the congressional mandate, TIGTA was sharply critical of the business model the IRS used to justify the TAC closings. In this one, it says the IRS lacks the necessary ‘management information’ it needs to adequately oversee the TAC operations.

“The Field Assistance Office does not maintain an overall list or database of TACs providing the number of assistors, hours and days of operation, and services offered at each TAC,” TIGTA said. Its report added that obtaining this information from separate lists “showed the data are unreliable, inconsistent and inaccurate.”

TIGTA pointed out that 47 of the 400 TACs nationwide—nearly 12 percent—are “critically” understaffed—meaning, President Kelley said, that they would be in danger of closing were it not for the dedicated IRS employees who are filling in from nearby TACs and through the use of seasonal employees.

The inspector general’s report said the understaffing is occurring, at least in part, because TAC employees fear for the loss of their jobs. “In anticipation of a decrease in the number of TACs, many TAC employees found other jobs in the IRS, creating vacancies in the TACs,” the report stated.

The third TIGTA report on this subject is due in another month or so and will focus on the IRS’s toll-free telephone operations—another customer service area in which the agency is significantly reducing help available to taxpayers.