Trump’s DOGE Executive Boasts $1.5 Billion in Savings from IRS Technology Budget

The IRS has released a list of “dirty dozen” scams, warning taxpayers, businesses, and tax professionals to be wary of schemes that could compromise financial information. Sam Corcos, a tech startup executive charged with reviewing the IRS’s technology modernization program, has canceled contracts worth $1.5 billion from the tax agency’s budget. He has found legacy contracts with outside technology consultants worth tens of billions of dollars and aims to cut unnecessary projects that are increasing complexity in the IRS’s code base. The IRS has paused technology modernization investments to reassess its operating approach in light of new artificial intelligence technologies, shifting away from the original $80 billion in IRS investment funding included in Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The modernization effort aims to revamp outdated computer architecture, improve taxpayer services, and enhance the IRS’s ability to increase tax collections through more sophisticated audits. Republicans in Congress have long targeted clawing back supplemental funding for the IRS, arguing that it is used to harass taxpayers. Although Corcos praised the dedication of the IRS’s information technology employees, he noted that their IT costs are much higher than those of private-sector banks processing similar amounts of data.