The Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) https://www.tigta.gov/  was established by the Internal Revenue Service (IRA) in January 1999 to provide independent oversight of IRS activities.   Its statutory authority derives from 5 USC 402 5 U.S. Code § 402 – Establishment and purpose of Offices of Inspector General | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute regulations can be found in 31 CFR 1 Appendix I to Subpart A eCFR :: Appendix I to Subpart A of Part 1, Title 31 — Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.  It’s audits and investigative activities strive to: 

• Investigate IRS employee misconduct and external attempts to corrupt or threaten IRS employees.
• Provide policy direction and conduct, supervise, and coordinate audits and investigations related to IRS programs and operations.
• Review and make recommendations on existing and proposed legislation and regulations related to IRS programs and operations.
• Promote economy and efficiency in the administration of tax laws.
• Prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse in IRS programs and operations.
• Inform the Secretary of the Treasury and Congress of problems and deficiencies identified and of the progress made in resolving them.

Recent TIGTA reports include The IRS Has Made Limited Progress in Achieving Paperless Processing The IRS Has Made Limited Progress Achieving Paperless Processing (2026) and Final Results of the 2025 Filing Season Final Results of the 2025 Filing Season (2025).  TIGTA’s fiscal year 2026 congressional budget request was $137,661,000 and its request for full-time employees was 660 TIGTA FY 2026 CJ p. 3.

This blog post was submitted by Bert Chapman, Purdue University.