WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) today publicly released its review of the caseload carried by senior revenue officers at the Internal Revenue Service.

Revenue officers attempt to contact taxpayers and resolve collection matters that have not been resolved through notices sent by the IRS campuses or the Automated Collection System. The IRS created the GS-13 revenue officer position in 2006 to handle more complicated cases.

TIGTA found that the IRS's Collection function is not identifying a sufficient number of complex cases for GS-13 revenue officers to work. This occurred because there is no systemic means for IRS managers to identify the most complex cases and the criteria for identifying complex cases are subjective and inconsistently interpreted.

"I am troubled that IRS managers are not providing employees with work assignments that they are ready and able to do at a time when it is incumbent on the IRS to be as efficient and effective as possible," said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

TIGTA recommended that the IRS improve the way it identifies and assigns complex collection cases. The IRS agreed with TIGTA's recommendations.