IRS building master file BY Judi Hasson

07/12/2000 The Internal Revenue Services modernization program is on track, with plans to phase in a master database that will enable the IRS to keep track of every contact the agency makes with taxpayers.

At a briefing on the status of the 10-year plan Tuesday, IRS officials said their blueprint for modernization is "holding together" as the tax agency undertakes the biggest information technology overhaul in government history.

"This program is one of the most significant public/private partnerships going on," said Paul Cosgrave, the IRS chief information officer.

Working with its prime partner, Computer Sciences Corp., the IRS has developed a plan to phase in a master system that will replace a tape-based program created in the 1960s. That program is so antiquated that one IRS clerk wouldnt know if another clerk talked to a taxpayer, even if the contact happened on the same day.

The IRS will start by putting at least 6 million tax returns into the database by 2003. Taxpayers who filed electronically in 1999 will be first, and the agency plans to phase other taxpayers into the system every year.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0710/web-irs-07-12-00.asp

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 12, 2000