The IRS can't find thousands of microfilm cartridges storing millions of sensitive business and individual tax account records which could be used to commit tax refund fraud according to the Treasury Inspector General who conducted the spot inspection.
“For example, our physical inspection found empty boxes labeled as including microfilm backup cartridges with no explanation as to the location of the missing cartridges,” the report said.
During a site inspection, IRS agents could not locate any of the 2010 fiscal year microfilm cartridges that should have been sent to the Kansas City Tax Processing Center in 2022 after the Fresno Tax Processing Center closed.
The watch dog group also identified “significant deficiencies” in the way the IRS safeguards, accounts and stores microfilm backup cartridges. The IRS is required by law to keep the backup information for a certain amount of time.