IG Report: IRS Failed to Track $67 Million for Obamacare
The Internal Revenue Service failed to track some $67 million in indirect costs of implementing the 2010 health-care overhaul, according to a new inspector general report.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said that the IRS should have done a better job of accounting for those indirect costs, including cost of workspace and computer support for people working on the health-care program.
Some conservative critics of the law seized on the report, which was released as Congress debates whether to defund or delay parts of the health-care overhaul. But the report focused mostly on dry differences in accounting methods.
For fiscal years 2010 through 2012, the IRS spent about $488 million to carry out the law, using a special fund created by Congress, the report found. But the IRS accounted only for direct costs such as labor and contracts, the report said. That was consistent with the health-care law’s intent, but doesn’t give a full picture of the costs, it said.
The issue is important because the implementation fund is winding down, and the IRS must support the new functions from its existing budget. “It therefore continues to remain critical that the IRS develop complete and reliable estimates for all costs associated with the implementation” of the health-care law, the inspector general’s report said.
In response, the IRS said it “takes seriously its obligation to be good stewards of government resources.” It said it agreed with the report’s recommendations and has already started applying them.
The IRS is central to carrying out of the complex health-care overhaul. It estimates that the law contains about 50 tax provisions, including at least eight that are requiring the agency to build new computer systems and business processes.