August 15, 2025
Eleina Monroe, Chief of Staff for Inspections and Evaluations at the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), is on a mission to explain what went wrong with the IRS’s taxpayer kiosk program—and why it’s now coming to an end. Speaking from first-hand experience, she paints a clear picture of outdated machines, missing contract requirements, and a lack of oversight that leaves taxpayers without a reliable self-service option.
Monroe says TIGTA’s review of the kiosk program begins during routine visits to IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs). While on site to observe services for taxpayers, her team notices something unusual: kiosks that either don’t work at all or are frustratingly difficult to use. “You would think it was a touch screen,” she recalls. “It wasn’t a touch screen. It was a track ball. It was very difficult to click, and so it’s very outdated.” That hands-on frustration sparks a separate review focused solely on the kiosks.
In speaking with managers at the TACs, Monroe learns about repeated service issues and delayed repairs. This leads her team to examine the maintenance contract, where they find two big gaps: no defined service response time and no penalties for slow or incomplete repairs. Without those requirements, equipment stays broken far too long—sometimes more than a year.
The problems aren’t just about slow repairs. Monroe explains that in some cases, the kiosks simply can’t be fixed because the necessary parts, like certain screens, are no longer manufactured. That leaves some machines permanently out of service.
While TIGTA’s scope for this review only covers the period from 2021 to the present, Monroe points out that the program has been around since 2011. In 2021, the IRS awards a firm fixed-price contract—worth about $500,000 a year—for kiosk monitoring and maintenance. But Monroe’s team finds that the services provided under that contract do not meet reasonable performance expectations.
Despite these issues, there is still demand for self-service options in IRS offices. Monroe notes that in fiscal year 2024, taxpayers used the kiosks for about 7,500 sessions. That’s why TIGTA recommends the IRS study whether updated kiosks or laptops could deliver a more effective, efficient option for those who lack internet access or local resources.
The IRS initially tells TIGTA it plans to have the kiosks operational by December 31, 2024. But when Monroe’s team visits eight TACs in January 2025, they find the machines are still not working. The agency later says it will assess the program’s potential benefits and challenges by early 2026.
For Monroe, the focus remains on ensuring taxpayers get the services they need. “We’re constantly looking for services that are being provided to taxpayers to help improve tax administration,” she says. TIGTA will watch for the IRS’s next steps and decide then whether to revisit the issue.
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