Accenture Federal Services has been awarded a seven-year purchase agreement worth up to $2.6 billion in contracts to modernize IRS systems.
The deal covers 400 IRS systems, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Accenture will help the IRS develop “new ways for taxpayers and tax professionals to interact with the agency,” the company said. A unit of the Irish services and consulting company Accenture (ACN) won’t have the business all to itself – it will still have to compete for contracts with rival service firm Maximus, which last week said it had also received an opinion on a “broadcast purchase agreement”.
Among the ongoing modernization efforts of the IZS is a proposal to create a free online tax return tool as an alternative to tax preparation vendors like TurboTax and H&R Block. IZS plans to launch a pilot program next year.
The new registration system is one of the reforms he requested Inflation Reduction Act of 2022which gave the agency $80 billion over 10 years to modernize systems, improve customer service and enforce the tax code.
The reforms will lead to “faster processing of returns and faster distribution of credits and benefits that are vital to so many Americans,” Jessica Powell, managing director of Accenture Federal Services and a leading IRS client, said in a written statement.
According to a February report by the Government Accountability Office, the government’s internal watchdog, IRS computer systems are long overdue for an upgrade. As of last August, the IRS was still using outdated computer applications, software and hardware that were up to 64 years old, driving up costs and creating security vulnerabilities.
