TIGTA: The Inspector General That Audits the IRS and Investigates Its Employees

Most taxpayers have never heard of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. IRS employees have. TIGTA audits IRS programs, investigates employee misconduct and reports to Congress on whether the IRS is following specific taxpayer protection laws.

If you want to know how the IRS actually behaves, as opposed to how its manual says it should behave, TIGTA reports are one of the best sources available. On this site I cite them by report number and date.

What Congress told TIGTA to check

26 U.S.C. 7803(d) lists additional duties for TIGTA. In one of its semiannual reports each year, TIGTA must evaluate IRS compliance with a specific set of taxpayer protections:

• The Section 1204 restrictions on using enforcement statistics to evaluate IRS employees.
• The restrictions in IRC 7521 on directly contacting taxpayers who have indicated they prefer their representatives be contacted.
• The required procedures under IRC 6320 when a notice of federal tax lien is filed.
• The required procedures for seizures, including the levy procedures under IRC 6330.
• The Section 3707 restrictions on designating taxpayers as illegal tax protesters.

The list is specific on purpose. Each item is a place where Congress worried the IRS might cut corners: counting enforcement results, going around representatives, skipping lien and levy notices and labeling taxpayers.

The same subsection requires TIGTA to review and certify whether the IRS is complying with IRC 6103(e)(8) on disclosing collection activity to a former joint filer, to report on statute extensions, the adequacy and security of IRS technology, any terminations or mitigations under Section 1203 and administrative or civil actions for violations of the fair tax collection practices in IRC 6304.

Two more items in 7803(d)(1) are worth knowing. TIGTA must report on extensions of the statute of limitations for assessment and collection and on whether taxpayers received notice of requests for those extensions. And it must report on improper denials of taxpayer requests for information identified in its audits of IRS disclosure decisions. Both are areas where taxpayers can be quietly disadvantaged, and Congress wanted someone counting.

IRM 5.1.22.1.4 (rev. 2026-06-25) acknowledges the joint return piece directly, listing TIGTA's annual statutory audit of disclosure of collection activities on joint returns among the controls on Collection's disclosure program.

Complaint and misconduct reporting

Under 26 U.S.C. 7803(d)(2), each TIGTA semiannual report must include the number of taxpayer complaints, the number of employee misconduct and taxpayer abuse allegations received from taxpayers, IRS employees and other sources, and, for serious employee misconduct, a summary of their status and disposition, including any Department of Justice action and monies paid in settlement.

Section 7803(d)(3) requires TIGTA to maintain a toll-free telephone number for taxpayers to confidentially register complaints of misconduct by IRS employees, and to audit a statistically valid sample of IRS decisions denying written requests for information on the basis of IRC 6103 or the law enforcement FOIA exemption.

TIGTA's online Submit a Complaint page includes categories for IRS employee crime or misconduct, including an IRS employee threatening to audit someone or soliciting a bribe, and states that submissions must name an IRS employee and give a detailed explanation of the allegation. The same page directs people to the IRS, not TIGTA, to report or share a recent experience interacting with an IRS employee, and to the Taxpayer Advocate Service for unresolved tax problems.

What a TIGTA audit looks like

Here is an example that bears on every collection case. In Report No. 2017-30-069, issued September 25, 2017, TIGTA examined how the IRS routes and prioritizes collection cases.

TIGTA reported that during fiscal year 2015 the Inventory Delivery System routed approximately 74 percent of new modules to ACS, 18 percent to the queue, 6 percent directly to the field and 2 percent to Compliance Services Collection Operations. It found that as of September 2015 the queue held nearly 3.3 million unassigned balance due modules valued at $57.5 billion, with another 1.4 million modules valued at $8.4 billion in shelved status. And it found that unassigned queue and shelved cases were not subject to the same number of routine systemic enforcement actions as cases in ACS or the field.

TIGTA made recommendations, and the report records that IRS management disagreed with one of them. That is typical: a TIGTA report shows the finding, the recommendation and the IRS's written response. I discuss what those findings mean for taxpayers in The IRS Collection Queue.

More from the same audit

The 2017 report also explains why some collection cases seem to vanish and reappear. TIGTA reported that collection cases can remain unassigned within an active or inactive inventory for up to 10 years, and that cases can pass through the Inventory Delivery System on multiple occasions because of the annual queue review or when a new module becomes available, with the same rules evaluating the case each time.

It found that although IRS procedures describe the queue as unassigned field inventory, IRS management told TIGTA the queue is potential inventory for all collection operations, and that since fiscal year 2010 less than 20 percent of queue inventory on average was assigned to the field while 29 to 34 percent was transferred to ACS.

That is the value of an inspector general. The manual describes the design. The audit measures what the design produced.

TIGTA also protects IRS employees

TIGTA's role runs in both directions. The IRM tells Revenue Officers to involve TIGTA when they are threatened. IRM 5.1.10.6.1 lists contacting the manager and TIGTA among the steps an officer takes after being assaulted in the field. IRM 5.1.10.6.2 says that if an officer encountering No Trespassing signs is significantly concerned for their safety, they should leave and request a TIGTA agent to accompany them on a second attempt.

TIGTA's complaint page likewise includes categories for IRS employees who were assaulted or retaliated against because of their duties, and for non-imminent threats against IRS or TIGTA employees and facilities.

If a TIGTA agent shows up alongside a Revenue Officer, that is usually why. The safest course for everyone is calm, polite and documented.

TIGTA and the IRM

TIGTA uses the IRM as its yardstick. IRM 1.11.6.2 (rev. 2025-09-02) says the IRM is used by the Government Accountability Office and by groups including Chief Counsel, the Taxpayer Advocate Service and TIGTA to confirm the IRS operates effectively, identify potential problems that may cause unnecessary burden or taxpayer rights violations and ensure the IRS complies with applicable laws.

The Taxpayer Advocate is told to stay out of TIGTA's lane. 26 U.S.C. 7803(c)(2)(E) requires the National Taxpayer Advocate, before beginning any research or study, to coordinate with TIGTA to avoid duplicating work TIGTA has done or plans to do.

Why TIGTA matters to a taxpayer

TIGTA does not resolve your tax bill. It will not negotiate an installment agreement or release a levy. If you need help with an account, the IRS itself, Appeals or the Taxpayer Advocate Service is the right place, as TIGTA's own complaint page says.

But TIGTA matters in two ways. First, if an IRS employee commits actual misconduct, such as soliciting a bribe, threatening an audit for personal gain or impersonation, TIGTA is the office that investigates. Second, TIGTA's audits are the best public evidence of how IRS programs work in practice, with numbers, and with the IRS's response attached.

Read the manual to learn what the IRS is supposed to do. Read TIGTA to learn how often it actually does it.