IRM 1.4.50, Collection Group Manager, Territory Manager and Area Director Operational Aid contains procedures, guidance and information for Field Collection group managers. The content includes general administrative responsibilities, performance management, internal controls, assignment of work, approval of work, quality and program reviews.

Authority

The Director, Collection Policy is the executive responsible for the policies and procedures to be employed by collection personnel.

Field Collection group managers, territory managers and area directors are responsible for ensuring compliance with the guidance and procedures described in this IRM.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) lists rights that already existed in the tax code, putting them in simple language and grouping them into 10 fundamental rights. Employers are responsible for being familiar with and acting in accord with taxpayer rights. See IRC 7803(a)(3), Execution of duties in accord with taxpayer rights. For additional information about the TBOR, see https://www.irs.gov/taxpayer-bill-of-rights

Program Reports: End of month reports. Group managers are required to use the ENTITY Case Management System (ENTITY) and the Integrated Collection System (ICS) to verify and report time charges by their employees and to generate and approve end of month reports. Section 1204 reports, group managers are required to submit quarterly certifications of compliance with section 1204 of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, prohibiting the use of tax enforcement results. ENTITY, ICS and the Automated Trust Fund Recovery (ATFR) penalty programs are used for group controls in these areas: imminent collection and assessment statutes, no touch/activity, higher graded duties, Notice of Federal Tax Lien (NFTL) determinations and pyramiding. Group managers are responsible for establishing and maintaining each of their employee’s Employee Performance File (EPF).

Program Reviews: Functional security reviews, group managers are required to conduct at least one security review, which must be documented and provided to the next level of management. Review of remittance controls are required to be performed by the group manager at least annually. Embedded Quality (EQ) consistency reviews. Group managers will participate in one or more EQ consistency reviews each year to assist in rating EQ attributes. Operational reviews are conducted by the territory manager and area director annually to evaluate program delivery and conformance to administrative and compliance requirements.

Program Effectiveness. The efficacy of Field Collection groups is measured by the program reports and reviews listed in IRM 1.4.50.1.4(1) & (2).

Frequently used terms used in this IRM along with their definition include:

This table lists commonly used acronyms and their definitions:

IRM resources include:

Web resources include:

When a new group is established or a new manager is assigned to an existing group, a meeting with the employees must be held within the first 30 days. At this meeting the manager will communicate expectations to include the following topics:

When a new employee is assigned to an existing group, the group manager must meet with the new employee to discuss managerial expectations (see (1) above) and ensure appropriate Business Entitlement Access Request System (BEARS) requests are completed and processed.

Regular group meetings will be held as necessary to review items such as the following:

You are responsible for reviewing time reported by your employees to ensure accuracy. Using ICS and ENTITY, verify time prior to end of month (EOM) processing (i.e., no later than COB on the last Friday of the monthly reporting period). Updates/corrections to end of day (EOD) data occur overnight. Thus, if all EOD activity is not completed and verified by the Friday prior to EOM, delays in processing EOM reports will result. Exhibit 10 in IRM 5.2.1, Collection Time Reporting, provides information about the last Friday of each reporting period and number of expected hours in each period. Consider the following:

Group managers are responsible for oversight of certain administrative functions for their employees including, but not limited to:

Other administrative tasks include, but are not limited to:

Items that you must update individually with each RO annually include, but are not limited to:

Resources:

A primary responsibility of managers is to monitor employee practices and actions to ensure that taxpayer rights are always observed.

Taxpayer rights include, but are not limited to the following:

Section 1203(b) of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA ‘98) calls for the termination of any employee of the IRS if there is a final administrative or judicial determination that the employee willfully committed any act or omission described below:

There is an important distinction between evaluating performance under CJE 2, Taxpayer Rights, and evaluating compliance with the Retention Standard for the Fair and Equitable Treatment of Taxpayers. See retention standard resources for more information.

Resources:

Group managers are responsible for ensuring that their employees have access to the IDRS command codes necessary to perform their assigned tasks and required research.

Safety and security are high priorities. You must become familiar with your responsibilities to ensure workplace safety for everyone.

See IRM 5.1.3, Safety, Security and Control, for information about safety and security topics including armed escorts for revenue officers.

Resources include:

Group managers who supervise bargaining unit (BU) employees must:

See Article 8 of the National Agreement for more information about how to identify 7114 meetings. Contact your LR specialist if you need assistance to determine if a meeting is a 7114 meeting.

Resources:

You will conduct annual security reviews per guidance in IRM 1.4.6.7.1, Managers Security Handbook-Functional Reviews. While the "after-hours" review may be completed by a designee (e.g. the Commissioner’s Representative) of the group manager in posts of duty where the manager is not located, the complete functional reviews must be conducted by the group manager or acting group manager. The review must be documented and a copy of the documentation provided to the next level of management. You may use Form 12149, Functional Security Review for Managers, to document your review. If another form of documentation (such as a memo) is used, ensure that it covers all items shown on Form 12149 and contains the printed name/title of reviewer, signature of reviewer, and date of review.

Refer to IRM 1.4.6, Managers Security Handbook, for servicewide guidance about your responsibilities.

If your reviews reflect that employees repeatedly fail to observe security protocols, contact your LR specialist to determine the next appropriate action.

The consultation process is designed to facilitate managerial engagement and knowledge sharing in an informal and non-evaluative setting. Unlike case reviews, which focus on the quality of the revenue officer’s casework evidenced by case documentation, the consultation process focuses on quality through a discussion and interaction between the manager and the revenue officer. Active listening is critical to the consultation process to ensure appropriate issues are raised, proper actions are identified and necessary skills are transferred.

The consultation process is designed to foster a mentoring and coaching environment, that facilitates learning by the employee and manager, as well as improved case resolution.

At the beginning of each year, confer with your territory manager to develop a consultation plan for the group. The plan must include a determination of the type and frequency of consultations planned for each revenue officer. Monthly consultations are expected for most revenue officers; however, less frequent consultations may be appropriate for seasoned employees who need little oversight. Consultations must occur at least quarterly to give adequate attention to all revenue officers.

As stated above, the discussion is the critical component of the consultation process. Documentation of consultations is minimal and is accomplished by completion of Form 6456, Conference or Contact Memorandum, for the revenue officer’s employee drop file. Required information contained on the Form 6456 is limited to the taxpayer name, the last four digits of the taxpayer’s Employer Identification Number or Social Security number and the date the consultation was held. Indicate the location where the consultation was held (i.e. office, field or telephonic) on the Form 6456. If additional documentation is recorded on the Form 6456, a copy of the form should be provided to the revenue officer. One Form 6456 can be used for multiple consultations held with a revenue officer on the same date. Form 6456 is found in the Miscellaneous/Publications menu under the Templates tab on the My ICS Menu. The form is titled Contact Memorandum.

Consultation documentation does not meet the requirements for evaluative documentation.

In addition to the documentation requirements above, consultations conducted on imminent CSED cases must also be documented in a manner consistent with IRM 5.1.19.5.3, Collection Statute Expiration-Documenting Imminent CSEDs. An imminent CSED is any CSED with less than 12 months remaining on the collection statute.

Case history and/or case files should be available for reference and discussion, if warranted, during the consultation process. This may prove to be very helpful when consulting with revenue officers who are newly assigned to a group. To be most effective, a face-to-face consultation is preferred, but there may be situations in which consultations are completed via the telephone.

Preparing performance evaluations is one of your most important responsibilities. In carrying out this duty, you will observe how the employees are performing their duties and responsibilities to ensure that they are working efficiently and effectively to accomplish assigned tasks.

Because you are responsible for implementing the policies and directives relative to performance evaluations, you should thoroughly familiarize yourself with all facets of performance appraisal/evaluation information including, but not limited to:

A formal performance evaluation serves:

For employees new to the government, the first year of employment is a probationary period during which the employee must demonstrate successful performance and the capability to be promoted to the next grade level (if applicable). See IRM 6.430.2.4.3, Employees Serving Probationary Periods.

Work closely with employees who are performing poorly, including probationary employees. Provide them with guidance/direction designed to assist them in improving performance. If performance improves, document the improvement accordingly. If performance fails to improve, refer to IRM 6.430.2, Performance Management Program for Evaluating Bargaining Unit and Non Bargaining Unit Employees Assigned to Critical Job Elements (CJEs), and seek appropriate advice to determine next steps.

Documentation of Performance:

When writing review narratives be concise, but descriptive enough to provide an accurate picture of the strengths, development needs, and accomplishments of the employee in each CJE. See IRM 6.430.2.4.6, Completing Appraisal Narratives.

Performance evaluations provide a uniform means for a written evaluation and rating of each employee's proficiency.

Formal employee evaluations represent the sum of what you have observed in each employee's work, using feedback, reviews, visitations and other techniques discussed in this manual. Consider the following when evaluating performance for an annual appraisal:

Each employee will receive an annual performance evaluation. See information about Performance Appraisal Due Dates in the National Agreement, Article 12, Exhibit 12-1.

Employees may submit a self-assessment, limited to four pages in length, no later than the last workday of the employee’s annual appraisal rating period. See IRM 6.430.2.4.5, Self-Assessments and IRM 6.430.2.6 , Conducting the Performance Appraisal Meeting.

Use only the work requirements of the particular position or specific work standards established by the IRS to make Acceptable Level of Competence Determinations (i.e. determination that employee is performing at a fully successful level).

For information on the suggested steps to make unacceptable performance determinations, see Exhibit 1.4.50-5.

Resources:

Providing ongoing employee feedback that is candid and meaningful is essential to employee satisfaction and is an integral part of the group manager’s responsibilities. Reviews of employee work should serve to:

All reviews relating to a revenue officer's case work must be in writing. Managers must use EQRS to review individual cases, but other types of performance observation lend themselves to other methods. For reviews that consider RO activity across multiple cases (e.g., time utilization, office/field observation) a summary narrative, such as a memorandum, may be substituted.
The EQRS Individual Feedback Report provides a record of your ratings and the narrative comments in which the revenue officer’s performance is summarized. Become familiar with attribute definitions. Find a link to the Embedded Quality website for information about EQ attributes at IRM 1.4.50.1.7, Related Resources and Document 12359., Embedded Quality Job Aid (Collection) provide specific guidance related to Embedded Quality attributes and how to use them.

At the beginning of the fiscal year, group managers will develop a review schedule for the group that includes all mandatory reviews and optional reviews. Optional reviews may include additional office or field visitations, time and workload reviews, etc. The review schedule should provide for a fair and accurate assessment of the employee's overall performance throughout the rating period.

Mandatory reviews represent the minimum review requirements that must be completed for each employee. It is intended that the minimum requirements will provide managers with the opportunity to spend more time reviewing and developing revenue officers that need additional feedback and assistance.
Mandatory reviews include:

When necessary, based on case reviews, other forms of review, the consultation process, field or office observation, etc., you have the authority to require your employee to obtain your approval before taking subsequent case actions.

Group managers will continually review information gathering activities by their employees. See IRM 5.1.3.7.1, Information Gathering Guidelines, for additional guidance.

For additional guidance on preparing reviews, narratives, and appraisals see:

Section 1204 of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA 98) prohibits the use of records of tax enforcement results (ROTERs) to evaluate employees or to impose/suggest production quotas/goals for any employee. See 26 CFR 801.3(e) implementing section 1204(a) of RRA 98.

IRM 1.5.2, Managing Statistics in a Balanced Measurement System, Uses of Section 1204 Statistics , provides guidance to prevent the use of statistics to:

You are prohibited from using records of tax enforcement results to evaluate any employee who exercises judgment with regard to determining tax liability or ability to pay. ROTERs are data, statistics, compilations of information or other numerical or quantitative recordations of the tax enforcement results reached in one or more cases. See IRM 1.5.2.11, Records of Tax Enforcement Results (ROTERs). This prohibition includes:

You are also prohibited from using ROTERs to impose or suggest production goals or quotas for employees or groups of employees. Examples of prohibited ROTERs include:

Resources:

In addition to being evaluated according to the critical elements and standards or such other performance criteria as may be established for their positions all employees of the IRS will be evaluated on whether they provided fair and equitable treatment to taxpayers. See 26 CFR 801.3(b) implementing section 1204(b) of RRA 98.

Form 6774, Receipt of Critical Job Elements and Retention Standard, is maintained in the EPF.

Resources include:

An employee shall be advanced in pay to the next higher step of their grade upon meeting the following requirements:

Use only the work requirements of the particular position or specific work standards established by the IRS to make Acceptable Level of Competence Determinations (i.e. determination that employee is performing at a fully successful level).

For information on steps to follow when an employee is not meeting an acceptable level of competence, see Exhibit 1.4.50-4.

Each employee will receive an annual performance evaluation. The due date of an evaluation for any particular employee is based upon the last digit of the employee’s Social Security Number (SSN). Refer to the National Agreement, Article 12, Exhibit 12-1. See IRM 1.4.50.1.7, Related Resources for a link to the National Agreement.

Discipline is defined as measures taken by management that are intended to correct employee misconduct, and encourage employee conduct in compliance with the standards of conduct, policies, goals, work procedures, and office practices of the IRS and the federal service. Employees must adhere to all known conditions and standards of conduct established to provide for the orderly and efficient administration of the IRS.

Employees who fail to comply with standards of conduct, work procedures, and office practices will be subject to disciplinary action designed to correct the violation and motivate the employee to become a productive member of the IRS.

You are responsible for establishing and maintaining effective discipline within your work group. You must explain the work requirements and other standards your employees are expected to meet.

When disciplinary action is required, it must be fair, equitable, impartial and as timely as possible.

A guide to assist you in determining appropriate penalties to correct improper conduct can be found in IRS Manager’s Guide to Penalty Determinations.

Ensure that you discuss and coordinate all proposed disciplinary actions with your Labor Relations specialist.

Resources:

Managing an employee participating in telework is essentially no different than managing an employee in the office. Ensure that your actions are in compliance with any applicable local telework agreement (if one exists) as well as the National Agreement. The employee on telework is still held accountable for the rules of conduct, critical job elements, time and attendance, ethics, and all other regulations applicable to their position.

Per Article 50, Section 1F of the National Agreement: telework is not a replacement for dependent/family care.

If you determine that an employee's work appears to be degrading from "fully successful" or is below a "fully successful" rating, you should review Article 50 Section 2 of the National Agreement to determine whether the employee's continuation on telework is appropriate. This occurs when any CJE rating equals "2" or below.

You should ensure that revenue officers are responsive to all customers. They must check voice mail and email (when accessible) to ensure external as well as internal customers (including managers) receive responses timely. It is appropriate for an employee to check their VMS and email prior to going to lunch and some time prior to ending their day. Employees supplied with pagers and cell phones should be expected to be more responsive.

You have the right to direct a telework employee to report to the office when necessary. For example, when having meetings, which include group meetings, case reviews, the consultation process, training, etc. This should be planned so that the employee has ample time to report to the office during their regular commute time. When an employee plans or decides to make field calls during a telework day the manager should be informed. This is referenced under Article 50, Section 5A of the National Agreement.

Article 50 of the National Agreement addresses telework issues. Sections pertinent to the management of employees in a telework environment are listed below:

Resources include:

Your official relationship with, authority over, and accountability for an employee participating in the IRS's telework program is no different than that for employees who are not participating in the program.

Your responsibilities include:

For an employee to remain on the telework program, they must:

If any of the above circumstances do not apply, the employee may be suspended from telework pending resolution of the performance and/or conduct investigation situations.

For further information, contact the local Labor Relations specialist. You can also refer to the National Agreement , Article 50. Coordinate proposed changes to telework arrangements with your LR specialist.

Strive for currency of inventory by encouraging revenue officers to take the right action at the right time on each case.

Communicate to revenue officers that you expect them to work their inventory as a whole.

ENTITY is the primary case management system for group managers. Group managers should familiarize themselves with the user guides and resources found on the ENTITY website. See IRM 1.4.50.1.7, Related Resources for a link to the ENTITY website and IRM 5.3.1, ENTITY Case Management System.

ENTITY receives information about case and RO activity from the Integrated Collection System (ICS), and the Delinquent Investigation/Account Listing (DIAL). ENTITY includes group level inventory, and time and activity information.

Use ENTITY to:

You can use the ENTITY report “Random Case Listing” to select categories of cases for review, such as pyramiders, trust fund repeaters, statute, no activity, etc.

You can also use ENTITY to:

Resources include:

The queue is an electronic file holding unassigned collection cases. Cases in the queue are prioritized for selection.

Cases can go into the queue from both ACS and Field Collection.

IDRS assignment number "AOTO7000" is used for cases in the queue.

All cases are assigned a priority level as follows:

The prioritization process is designed to display cases in a priority hierarchy from the highest to lowest priorities. Case are prioritized weekly.

Certain BAL DUE or DEL RET cases move directly from notice status to Field Collection (FC). These cases bypass both ACS and the queue and are assigned directly to ICS (cases will be sent directly to the ICS GM hold file). See IRM 5.1.20.3.1, Cases that Bypass ACS and the Queue that go Directly to ICS. Other types of cases will also arrive in your hold file, including FTD Alerts, OIs, case transfers, etc.

Manage your ICS GM hold file by conducting weekly reviews to determine:

If you suspect you have received erroneous assignments in your GM hold file, and you cannot transfer the case to the queue, contact your IQA and determine the appropriate resolution for such cases. See IRM 1.4.50.9.1.1.

Do not shelve any case unless authorized by a specific policy directive or memorandum issued by the Headquarters staff. See IRM 1.4.50.9.1.1.

To decrease cycle time, do not keep cases in the group designation hold file (AOTOxx00) more than 45 days after receipt. When you must keep a case in the hold file for more than 45 days, document the case history to show the reason.

"Taxpayer Needs Assistance" (High priority 99-108 with sub code 601-604) cases must be promptly assigned to a revenue officer unless it is evident that the priority level coding is erroneous. Erroneously coded cases may be returned to the queue. Because many "Taxpayer Needs Assistance" cases come from a Campus, Toll Free Operation, or ACS, they may arrive without a clear explanation. If the contact request cannot be verified, document the ICS case history and send any non-restricted case to the queue.

When reassigning the inventory of a departing revenue officer, review all considerations in IRM 1.4.50.10.3, Reassignment of Departing Revenue Officer Inventory. Per guidance in that subsection, add such cases to your group designation hold file only after exhausting other assignment options.

There are certain situations in which cases become inactive and warrant removal from revenue officer inventories, but must still be maintained in the collection group. In order to accommodate these situations, group hold files are authorized as specified below. Use of a group hold file is optional and is left to local management's discretion. However, if group hold files are utilized, the following procedures must be followed.

In order to maintain consistency, hold files must be designated specific assignment numbers and will be limited to the types of cases as described below:

Cases should not be assigned to these hold files if action or monitoring is required on the part of the revenue officer or offer specialist. The revenue officer will document the case history with the specific reason the case is being reassigned to the proper hold file and submit the request to the manager for approval. The manager will determine whether the case warrants assignment to the group hold file, document approval in the case history, and reassign the case to the specified number as noted above.

Cases or OIs which require the completion of a collection action which has been temporarily suspended is defined as accounts where all of the investigative steps have been taken to support a case resolution alternative (e.g. IA, CNC etc) but need to remain open on ICS for completion of a collection action which has been temporarily suspended.

A central point in the group may be established for maintaining the paper files associated with these cases, or the paper files may remain with the revenue officer as determined by the group manager.

You must conduct quarterly reviews of the cases in these assignment numbers to ensure timely responses to the requested actions. The review should also determine whether the case should remain assigned to the hold file or be reassigned to the revenue officer for action. Document the ICS case history as appropriate.

Balance Due and Delinquent Return investigations are issued with a case grade of GS 11, 12, or 13. These grade levels reflect the anticipated level of difficulty of the case. The Inventory Delivery System (IDS) is the primary system used to determine the case grade. Cases not graded by IDS will continue to receive their grade from RWMS. IRM Exhibit 1.4.50-1 reflects the criteria used by the Resources and Workload Management System (RWMS) to determine the case difficulty level.

When manual identification of cases is necessary use the Revenue Officer Case Assignment Guide, in Exhibit 1.4.50-1.

You are responsible for reviewing and maintaining the correct case grade. Case grade levels can be either increased or decreased. There are systemic processes in place to predict the grade level of a case. If, based on receipt of additional information or change in case circumstances, the predicted case grade does not appear to be accurate, you may re-grade the case. A list of criteria that should be considered in conducting case grade analysis is shown in Exhibit 1.4.50-1, Revenue Officer Case Assignment Guide. This can be done at any time: upon receipt, upon assignment to RO or during case reviews. Revenue officers should be encouraged to bring mis-graded cases to your attention. See IRM 1.4.50.10.2(4), Maintaining Targeted Inventories.

Document the factors used in determining a new case grade in the ICS history. The ICS pick list meets this documentation requirement. The following choices, if selected from the drop down menu, are written to the case history; Nature of Entity, Range of Case Issues, Personal Contacts, and Impact of Enforcement Action. If additional explanation is needed you should write a narrative history as well. See ICS User Guide, Chapter 23, Case Maintenance for guidance on updating case grade levels for more information. For a link to the ICS User Guide, see IRM 1.4.50.1.7, Related Resources.

You will not normally change the grade of a case unless it meets at least three of the four factors at the lower or higher level. Document in the case history the reason for not using at least three of the four factors when applicable.

When you determine that the difficulty level of a case has changed, adjust the grade level by using the ICS Change Grade Level process. This will change the case grade level on ICS and upload the new determined grade level (DGL) to IDRS.

You may need to consider a reassignment of the case if a grade level change is made. See IRM 1.4.50.10.2.

In general, assign taxpayer cases related to a present assignment to the same revenue officer. If the new case is a lower grade than the original, re-grade it only if it meets the Revenue Officer Case Assignment Guide (CAG) criteria independent of the original assignment.

If you downgrade a case with a systemically assigned grade level, notify the employee via e-mail of the reasons for downgrading the case.

You are responsible for monitoring inventory levels to ensure each revenue officer has an appropriate number of cases within the established ranges that can be resolved most effectively and efficiently based on the employee’s grade level, experience, and expertise. The guidelines below provide flexibility for group managers to adjust inventories as needed. You must monitor the effectiveness of each revenue officer to determine the optimal inventory level based on the individual facts and circumstances of each RO. Factors to consider include, but are not limited to: developmental needs, performance issues, extensive geographic territory, and complex casework.

Absent indications to the contrary, consider limiting new assignments to five per work week. Certain circumstances could necessitate assigning more than five cases, including, but not limited to:

The inventory levels for trainees are linked to milestones during the on-the-job training (OJT) phases of training. Case assignments to RO trainees should be timed to be available during the OJT periods of the employee’s training, and should generally be assigned weekly in order to increase the trainee’s inventory incrementally. Assignments should be timed in order to provide cases to the trainee in a manner which allows the employee to perform the pre-contact analysis and make timely initial contacts. The current revision of Document 12922, SB/SE Collection Manager and OJI Recruit Hire Guide contains case assignment guidance and inventory ranges for trainees based on the current revenue officer OJT timeline. Assign a sufficient mix of TDA and TDI investigations to provide trainees with cases where they can demonstrate proficiency in the subjects delivered in classroom training. Standard case assignments should be high priority accounts unless assignment of lower priority cases is justified.

You must submit a BEARS request for each trainee in your group. The trainees must be enrolled in the Employee User Portal prior to the BEARS request. Include the first six digits of the trainee’s assignment number in the BEARS request to enable the IQA to create the training record in ICS. Advance contact with the IQA is recommended if you will be submitting BEARS requests for multiple trainees. Each trainee record in ICS must have a coach associated with the record. The coach must have an assignment number in the same group as the trainee. If the coach is from another group, the coach must submit a BEARS request to create an assignment number in the trainee’s group. If a coach has not been assigned at the same time the trainee’s record is created, the trainee’s manager will be designated as the coach. At the end of the employee’s trainee period, the manager must submit an ICS Help Request to remove the trainee position type from the ICS record.

When a revenue officer’s position type is designated “trainee,” the employee’s inventory level is not included in the End Of Month Balanced Measures report. Therefore, an adjustment inventory adjustment should not be made for a revenue officer trainee in ENTITY.

When additional cases need to be assigned, you should look to the following sources for additional work:

The standard inventory ranges of taxpayer cases (a taxpayer case constitutes all accounts/investigations on a single entity) for revenue officers are:

The standard inventory ranges apply only to revenue officers with case inventories of bal dues, del rets, OIs, FTD Alerts, and CIPs.

Standard inventory ranges give you flexibility to consider a variety of circumstances when monitoring individual revenue officer inventories.

When a revenue officer’s assigned inventory exceeds the maximum level of the standard inventory range, you should reduce it to a level within the standard range within 10 work days. If you cannot reduce the inventory within 10 days, you must relieve the revenue officer, in writing, of the IRM requirements regarding prompt initial and follow-up contacts until the inventory is within range. Once the inventory level no longer exceeds the maximum level of the standard range, provide written notification to the employee. Maintain such documentation in the affected employee's EPF.

If inventory levels in the group are above the standard inventory range, the following options should be considered:

If revenue officers are still above their standard inventory range after using the above measures, you may return cases to the queue unless they are:

Where inventory will be abandoned for periods of 90 days or more (for example a revenue officer is reassigned, on extended leave, or long term detail) you will consider performing the following actions:

Where feasible, revenue officer geographic areas and/or case loads should be rotated every three years. This will give revenue officers additional experience and avoid over-familiarity with taxpayers in a particular geographic area. Rotate between revenue officers of the same grade. Do not change revenue officers’ posts of duty to meet this objective.

In large metropolitan areas with multiple groups and/or posts of duty (PODs), it may be possible to rotate case loads by realigning zip codes between groups and/or PODs.

Certain cases in Collection Inventory may be assigned to tax examiners (TEs).

Assigned cases may be located either within or outside of the area.

TEs will not conduct field visits. All casework will be done in the office, using the telephone, mail, and online services. TEs may also use an approved digitized format to receive documents (other than current tax returns) from taxpayers such as e-fax or the Document Upload Tool (DUT). TEs must follow existing guidance on the acceptance of delinquent tax returns containing an image of the taxpayer’s signature(s), see IRM 5.1.11.6, Secured Returns.

For specific guidelines on working Collection cases, TEs will refer to procedures found throughout Part 5 of the IRM. TEs should document the ICS history concerning deviations from IRM guidance for ROs. For example: Field visit to view business assets not made due to case assigned to tax examiners.

Cases assigned to TEs should meet the following criteria:

All cases assigned to TEs should be sub coded as 655 (DEL RET) or 656 (BAL DUE) on the Integrated Collection System (ICS).

This subsection outlines inventory management issues arising from federally declared disasters or other emergency declarations under the Robert T. Stafford Act. These events pose challenges to the IRS in terms of protecting the rights of impacted taxpayers and maintaining continuity of Field Collection operations. The term "disaster" will be used generically in this section to cover all applicable federal declarations under the Robert T. Stafford Act. Procedures for working cases with disaster indicators is located at IRM 5.1.12.2, Cases Requiring Special Handling- Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief.

A revenue officer compliance sweep (ROCS) is an assignment of work strategy utilized by Field Collection to support compliance initiatives. The purpose of a ROCS is to address an increase in unassigned high priority inventory aligned to a compliance initiative (e.g. egregious employment tax cases, high income non-filers or speciality program) in a given area or program due to current field compliance staffing or to support a compliance initiative.

Recommendations for ROCS to address high-priority inventory assignments are generally initiated at the Territory or Area level. All ROCS must be approved by the Director, Field Collection. ROCS recommendation/approval templates may be obtained from your Territory Manager.

You are required to maintain control procedures per IRM 5.1.2.5.5.1, Form 3210 and Form 795/795A Follow Up, to ensure delivery and acknowledgement of remittance packages to Submission Processing. Periodically (at least once annually) conduct a review of control procedures established to ensure staff is complying with the procedures in IRM 5.1.2.4, Daily Report of Collection Activity. This control review should include the procedures for remittance packages prepared by revenue officers working away from the POD on extended field calls or telework. This control review should include reviewing procedures for remittance packages prepared by revenue officers within the group but located in satellite/remote PODs.

You must document your review. An optional template containing the minimum documentation is contained in Exhibit 1.4.50-9, Remittance Processing Transmission Control Review Template. If the template is not used, the review documentation must, at a minimum, notate the date the review was completed, the name of the reviewer, each of the review points listed in the template, whether the review point's IRM requirement was met or not met, and any corrections/comments for each review point. The documented review must be retained for the appropriate period required under the records management guidelines per IRM 1.15, Records and Information Management. A copy of the documented review may be forwarded to the TM for review.

The review documentation must be retained for the appropriate period under the records management guidelines per Document 12990, Records Control Schedule (RCS) Tax Administration – Compliance, Item 2 – General Administration and Housekeeping Correspondence. Destroy when 2 years old.

Generate a report from ENTITY at least monthly to identify accounts for which the collection statute expiration date (CSED) will expire within the next 12 months. Review those cases to:

The CSED displayed may be invalid in certain cases. The CSED shown is always for the earliest assessment on the module. If that assessment is paid, the true CSED is for a later assessment (for example, an adjustment or deficiency assessment). If that is the case, request command code CSEDR to eliminate erroneous CSEDs from future monthly reports. Update the CSED date on ICS or instruct the revenue officer to take that action.

See IRM 5.1.19.5.3(3), Documenting Imminent CSEDs, for necessary actions when the CSED will expire in 120 days or less.

If a statute expires, see IRM 5.16.1.2.2.5, Report of Statute Expiration. Reports are not required for statutes that expired while the case was in the queue.

Generate a report from ENTITY at least monthly to identify accounts where the assessment statute expiration date (ASED) for the trust fund recovery penalty (TFRP) will expire within the next 12 months. Ensure that these cases are loaded on the ATFR System. Review and comparison of ENTITY reports and ATFR reports should ensure accurate identification of all potential ASED issues.

Review potential ASED modules where no penalty determination appears to have been made, and the case has been in inventory for greater than 5 months.

When appropriate, instruct revenue officers to:

Check to ensure the revenue officer made a determination on ATFR, appropriately documented the ICS case history concerning TFRP development and the ASED review indicator (ASED-R) is properly recorded on IDRS.

Report the expiration of any ASED per instructions in IRM 5.7.3.7.9, Reporting Expiration of TFRP Statute.

The Automated Trust Fund Recovery (ATFR) application provides several reports to facilitate monitoring of TFRP assessments. Monitor ATFR reports at least monthly to ensure investigations are conducted and recommendations are made timely. Use these reports to:

The ATFR application is also used to approve revenue officer actions such as:

The following ICS case history entries should be automatically generated by ATFR:

If you approve an installment agreement before sending Form 2749 to CPM on ATFR, ensure that an Other Investigation (OI) is created on ICS to control the TFRP case until the Form 2749 has been submitted to CPM. See IRM 5.14.7.4.1(12), Trust Fund Recovery Penalties and Installment Agreements.

If bal due modules are being reported CNC prior to sending Form 2749 to CPM on ATFR, an Other Investigation (OI) will be created on ICS to control the TFRP case until the Form 2749 has been submitted to CPM. See IRM 5.16.1.2.6(6), Defunct Corporations, Exempt Organizations, Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies.

Resources include:

ICS provides a monthly area level report to monitor processing of CDP and EH requests. These reports are accessible by the designated CDP coordinator for the area. The CDP coordinator monitors these reports to identify hearing requests that appear to be aging in field inventory and on a quarterly basis will issue an alert to the territory and/or group manager for appropriate follow-up.

ICS provides a weekly group level CDP/EH Inventory Report. This report identifies CDP and EH requests in process at the group level. Use this report to identify hearing requests in the group and follow-up as appropriate on requests that appear to be aging. Refer to IRM 5.1.9.3.3, Processing CDP and EH Requests, for time frames for processing hearing requests.

Managers can check the receipt and status of cases in Appeals by researching the Appeals Centralized Database System (ACDS).

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) maintains the FinCEN Query (FCQ) system, which is a database containing 31 U.S.C. Title 31 financial reports. These reports include Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs), Reports of International Transportation of Currency and Monetary Instrument Reports (CMIRs), Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs), and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Reports of Case Received by Trades or Businesses, Form 8300.

By memorandum issued by commissioner, SBSE, on March 29, 2011, certain compliance employees of SBSE are now authorized electronic access to the FinCEN Query system in connection with active and assigned cases.

ATAT, International and all l GS 13 field collection revenue officers may be authorized online access to FCQ system, but only after they and their managers have been trained in the proper handling of SAR information. Revenue officers and group managers must complete Integrated Talent Management (ITM) course 41166, Safeguarding Online Access and Using Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Information Briefing. GMs must also complete ITM course 41667, Manager Online Suspicious Activity Report Audit Trail Reviews Briefing.

Managers of employees with access to FCQ system conduct reviews of query audit trails for their employees’ logons, logoffs, and records access no less than annually and for a review period of no less than 30 days of FCQ system access within the past year. The FCQ system maintains up to the past 13 months of user query information.

A GM may only request an audit report for an employee who is the manager’s direct report.

A FCQ system audit report mailbox has been established for managers to request audit trails, the mailbox address is *SBSE FCQ AUDIT TRAIL.

GMs request an audit trail by forwarding the name and complete email address of the employee and the review time frame to the above address via secure email. The audit report will be returned to the requesting manager via secure email.

At a minimum, the review should confirm and document:

If the employee’s research indicates inspection of records not related to an open or closed case assigned to the employee, or in the case of a gatekeeper/super user, if the research is not supported by an approved Form 10509-A, see IRM 10.5.5.3.2, Privacy and Information Protection - IRS Unauthorized Access, Manager UNAX Responsibilities for guidance on suspected UNAX violations.

If the area SAR gatekeeper is a group manager or an area analyst, the territory manager or area director may delegate another area management official the responsibility of completing the online review of SAR audit trails for the area gatekeeper.

You must document your review. An option review template is provided at Exhibit 1.4.50-13, FinCEN Query Review Template. If the template is not used, the review documentation must notate the date of the review, and the review points listed above.

Form 3210, Document Transmittal, is the control document used when shipping closed cases from the group to Centralized Case Processing (CCP).

You must conduct quarterly reviews of Forms 3210 used to transmit closed cases. Confirm that control copies of Form 3210 are timely reconciled with acknowledgement copies. If Form 795B is associated with Form 3210, confirm that all cases listed on Form 795B are also listed on Form 3210.

Refer to IRM 10.5.1.6.9.3, Shipping, for further information about Form 3210 procedures including follow-up time frames/actions and loss reporting.

Ensure that control copies of Forms 3210 are retained in accordance with the Records and Information Management Records Control Schedule in Document 12990, Records Control Schedules, RCS 22, Tax Administration-Compliance, Item 2, General Administration and Housekeeping Correspondence. Destroy Forms 3210 when two years old.

Compliance Data Warehouse Knowledge Graph Environment (CKGE) is an interactive software tool that provides linked data and graph analytics for a range of a taxpayer’s related entities. CKGE was developed by Research, Applied Analytics & Statistics (RAAS) and is a graph database. CKGE performs data analytics from information in the Compliance Data Warehouse (CDW) and provides a graphic representation of a taxpayer’s relationship to other entities.

CKGE research user audit logs are systemically shared with Cyber IT and are analyzed for potential UNAX violations. In addition to this capability RAAS developed the CKGE Manager Audit Module (CMAM) for additional management controls of the use of CKGE.

GMs will automatically gain access to CMAM when a revenue officer aligned to the GM in the Discovery Directory has been granted CKGE access. GMs will only have access to the CKGE research conducted by ROs aligned to them on the Discovery Directory.

GMs must complete one review of each employee with CKGE access using CMAM during the employee’s rating period.

You must document your review. Use of the template is located at Exhibit 1.4.50-12 is optional. Take the following steps to perform your review:

In reaching our goals we consider our impact on customer and employee satisfaction while we strive to improve quality and achieve quantifiable results. The Embedded Quality (EQ) process was developed to support balanced measures objectives.

National quality reviewers use a similar web-based system called the National Quality Review System (NQRS). A cornerstone of EQ is that quality reviewers and managers use the same basic set of attributes. This should minimize the concern that national reviewers are applying different criteria than managers when reviewing cases. However the national quality reviews will not be used to evaluate individual employee performance. NQRS attributes are not linked to employee CJEs; instead each attribute is mapped to one of five quality measurement categories:

Consistency reviews will be conducted to assist users in rating EQ attributes consistently by using the attribute job aids, EQ website guidance, employee critical job elements and IRMs. You may participate in one or more EQ consistency reviews each year. The goal of consistency reviews is to improve the understanding and application of the EQ rating guidelines. Group managers and territory managers within a territory will review the same case, compare attribute results, and discuss how rating guidelines can be applied to achieve consistency on attributes where significant rating inconsistencies occurred.

Territory managers will schedule and conduct EQRS consistency reviews with group managers annually. Area directors may add additional reviews when consistency among managers needs improvement. Consistency reviews require all managers within a territory to review the same case to compare attribute results and discuss how rating guidelines can be applied to achieve consistency.

Reviews are documented by preparing a written narrative to include the date the review was completed, observations and actions taken to achieve consistent application of EQ attributes.

Refer to IRM 5.13.1, Embedded Quality Collection Field Organizations Administrative Guidelines, for information and guidance about EQ.

It is extremely important that case documentation is timely, clear, accurate, and complete. Specific guidance for revenue officer case documentation is provided in various sections of the IRM, including Part 5.

Incomplete documentation will negatively affect:

TMs have oversight responsibility for program delivery as well as administrative/compliance conformance.

Operational reviews are used to monitor and document progress toward achieving organizational goals and objectives.

Operational reviews have two components: program reviews and administrative compliance reviews.

While oversight responsibility is ongoing, TMs must periodically conduct appropriate reviews and document findings with a memorandum.

Conduct follow up reviews when appropriate.

These procedures apply to all general collection and ATAT groups (excludes OIC).

Program and/or administrative/compliance reviews may be conducted during the fiscal year as a single phase comprehensive review or may take the form of an on-going series of multi-phased reviews that focus on specific aspects of the group’s performance.

Information from periodic GM briefings could also be incorporated in a multi-phased approach. Briefings are an optional method used to ensure periodic communication on group progress and other areas of interest.

Feedback about program review findings is expected to occur continuously throughout the review cycle.

When using a comprehensive review option, one narrative will be prepared to document findings.

When using the multi-phase approach, prepare a narrative to document each component at the time the review is completed. For example, you may conduct reviews of specific program aspects, such as NFTL determinations or trust fund activity, providing group specific feedback.

When using the multi-phase approach, you may choose to review program aspects across the territory and provide group specific feedback or review targeted aspects for a specific group.

The narrative should be written with the GM as the intended audience. Attachments that provide additional detail may be used as appropriate.

Share review documentation with the group manager within 60 days of completing the actual review.

When developing a group program review plan, consider the experience level of the GM and the group’s overall current performance. Additionally, TMs that are new to the existing groups should conduct a review that would ensure complete familiarity to the groups in the territory.

Provide a framework for the group operational reviews at the beginning of each fiscal year based on the above criteria.

Exhibit 1.4.50-7, Operational Review Plan Guide, may be used to develop the framework for the Operational Review.

Confer with the area director (AD) for concurrence on a plan that is tailored for each group’s unique circumstances.

Plan the review based on your analysis of territory and group performance results and program trends. A variety of ENTITY Case Management System reports should assist in determining areas of focus for the review.

The review plan will be tailored to the needs of each group in order to assess progress on objectives and ensure employee skills are developed, customers serviced timely, and the group’s performance is enhanced in both quality and productivity.

Critical items that should be addressed in each group program review include: leadership, communication, case reviews, quality of case actions, and employee performance feedback.

Administrative/compliance reviews are used to monitor and document oversight of operational items not included in program reviews. TMs are required to provide oversight for administrative/ compliance review areas. These reviews may be conducted at anytime during the fiscal year.

Document results of mandatory administrative/compliance review items in a clearly identified subsection of your annual comprehensive program review or prepare a separate narrative review (at least annually) to summarize results.

Documentation is required for those items noted as mandatory as well as items for which findings indicate non-compliance and/or a need for improvement.