The IRS replaces IRS2Go with an app for payments, notices and tax records
Taxpayers can now pay, read letters and pull transcripts on their phones. The agency has lost 42 per cent of its IT staff this year.
The US Internal Revenue Service has launched a new mobile app that replaces IRS2Go, the app it released in 2011, FedScoop reported.
IRS2Go mostly let people check refunds and find filing resources. The new app, free on Apple and Google stores, adds account features: making payments and reviewing activity, viewing notices and letters, accessing tax records and transcripts, and seeing balances. Existing IRS2Go users will be updated automatically.
"It advances our digital-first agenda to meet taxpayers how and where they choose to interact with the IRS, whether at home or on the go," said Frank Bisignano, the IRS chief executive, who also leads the Social Security Administration. "Our goal is to make IRS services easy to access and more consistent across all of our platforms."
Limits
The app does not replace online accounts or IRS.gov, and covers individuals only, not business or tax professional accounts. The agency says it will add capabilities over time.
It arrives during deep cuts. The IRS has reduced its workforce by 30 per cent, including 42 per cent of its IT staff, and its watchdog rated its cybersecurity programme "not effective" this month.
Mobile as the main channel
For many people, especially younger and lower-income taxpayers, the phone is the main or only computer, so an app with real account functions matters more than a refund tracker. But a mobile channel is only as good as the systems and staff behind it. Notices that can be read in an app still need answers from a person when something is wrong, and an agency with a 20-month identity theft backlog has work to do beyond the screen.
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