The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) today publicly released its assessment of the human capital challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

According to the report, these challenges include the recruitment, training, and retention of employees to replace the increasing number of employees who are eligible to retire. More than half of the IRS-s approximately 106,000 employees have reached age 50, and 39 percent of IRS executives are already eligible for retirement. To fill the projected shortage in leadership, the IRS has stated that it must recruit one manager a day for the next 10 years.

Although the IRS has recently increased its attention to human capital issues, TIGTA believes that the agency will need to focus on four key areas in order to properly address its human capital challenge. According to TIGTA-s assessment, the IRS needs to move toward an agency-wide approach to human capital, balance its long-term human capital needs with daily workforce issues, evaluate the success of human capital initiatives and make adjustments as necessary, and build upon the momentum gained through the IRS-s recent emphasis on human capital issues.

"The loss of executives and other employees at the IRS as a result of retirement could threaten the IRS's ability to accomplish its mission and provide American taxpayers with the level of service they require," said J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. "While the IRS has recently increased its focus on workforce issues, there is a risk that it may not have the right people, in the right place, at the right time, in order to meet the challenges of its changing workforce," added Inspector General George.