Crunch Time For IRS Data Centers

1sockchuck writes "It's crunch time for the Internal Revenue Service. As the IRS processes the annual crescendo of returns around today's tax deadline, the state of the agency's infrastructure depends upon who you ask. IT executives at the IRS say it has made huge strides in modernizing its data centers, which processed 139 million returns and issued $298 billion in refunds in 2009. Independent tests say the IRS web site is the fastest US government site, and one of the fastest on the web. But a key government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, says the modernization effort hasn't moved quickly enough, and continues to fault the IRS for security weaknesses."

Website != Datacenter...

[nweaver]

The IRS's web presence (rather than their back-end data processing) is very good because they are heavily Akamaized: everything is hosted through Akamai's infrastructure, so its very quick to get to the IRS website.

Additionally, their site design is actually remarkably good and easy to navigate, so its both technically quick and usably quick.

But this is really orthoginal to the main issue in the article, which is the back-end, in-house infrastructure for processing all the returns.

Re:Question

[spyder913]

Because procrastination is easy! And some people don't know if they're going to get a refund until they bother to fill out their taxes.

I had to wait this year until my wife got her Schedule K-1 done, which took forever.

Re:So many billions wasted for nothing

[MozeeToby]

It's not really that complex. Something like 80% of people can get the largest refund possible by filling out the a single form, with around 15 entries on it. The only way this isn't true is if you spend a lot of your paycheck on things like student loans, mortgage interest, charity, or medical bills. All of which encourage things that help to stabalize our society, so I don't really see much of a problem with them personally.

Re:Oopsies!

[smooth wombat]

but we like getting the big honkin' checks when we file.

So you like giving the government an interest free loan? You do realize you could be getting interest (albeit small) on the money which could then be used to pay for that expensive gadget.

It's one thing to game the system by using the one-month float on a credit card. It's quite another to float the government a nearly year-long, interest-free loan.

Re:Oopsies!

[Red Flayer]

I used to do the same thing... but found an easy way to make sure I didn't have easy access to the money, but could still earn interest on it during the year.

Set up automatic withdrawals from your regular bank account(s), to be deposited into an investment account. It's very cheap to do, and if you seed it with a few thousand when you set it up, you won't get hit with monthly fees for maintaining a low balance. Different banks have different products for this kind of service, so talk to your banker.

You could also set up rolling CDs to do about the same thing, but I prefer having the separate investment account, since I can tap it in case of emergency without penalty.

Re:Question

[GungaDan]

The pedant in me must point out that you file your RETURN and await your REFUND (if due one).

Re:Oopsies!

[jr0dy]

Particularly when government entities are becoming less and less solvent. Many states are temporarily suspending refund issuance right now because they simply can't cover them; California issued IOU's last year. The IRS actually implemented the option of receiving your refund in the form of U.S. Treasury Bonds this year - somewhat fishy, IMO. Let's hope that next year Treasury Bonds don't become the only option for refunds - even more reason to target your liability and close as possible, and err to the side of owing. You can leave up to $1,000 outstanding until the deadline, and as long as you pay it with your return or extension by 4/15, you won't be subject to any underpayment penalties.

Re:Oopsies!

[FlyingBishop]

Government IOUs are called money. If the government is handing out something other than money in place of money, your money is worthless anyway.