The Annual Business Plan (ABP) establishes priorities for Criminal Investigation (CI) operations for FY2010 and is based on the IRS Strategic Plan for 2009-2013.

The IRS Strategic Plan includes two goals and a set of strategic foundations:   

I.   Improve Service to Make Voluntary Compliance Easier

• Incorporate taxpayer perspectives to improve all service interactions
• Expedite and improve issue resolution across all interaction with taxpayers, making it easier to navigate the IRS
• Provide targeted, timely guidance and outreach to taxpayers
• Strengthen partnerships with tax practitioners, tax preparers and other third-parties to ensure effective tax administration 

II.  Enforce the Law to Ensure Everyone Meets Their Obligation to Pay Taxes

• Swiftly and proactively enforce the law
• Expand enforcement approaches and tools
• Meet the challenges of international tax administration
• Allocate compliance resources using a data-driven approach to target existing and emerging high-risk areas
• Continue focused oversight of the tax-exempt sector
• Ensure that all tax practitioners, tax preparers, and other third-parties in the tax law system adhere to professional standards and follow the law

Strategic Foundations: Invest for High Performance

• Make the IRS the best place to work in government
• Build and deploy advanced information technology systems, processes and tools to improve efficiency and productivity
• Use data and research across the organization to make informed decisions and allocate resources
• Ensure the privacy and security of data and the safety and security of employees
• Expand online tools and services

Compliance Strategies

A. Maintain focus on significant legal source tax investigations, including efforts to strengthen the partnership with IRS operating divisions to implement and maintain a successful Fraud Referral Program.

B.  Effectively work with the Department of Treasury, the Department of Justice, and other law enforcement partners to enforce tax laws and investigate the financial aspects of other criminal activities that affect domestic and international tax administration, and enhance Bank Secrecy Act compliance efforts.

As part of IRS’s overall effort to reduce the tax gap, Criminal Investigation will focus on the delivery of high-impact, high-quality investigations by continuing to commit substantial resources to legal and illegal source tax investigations and by working closely with the IRS operating divisions to develop and investigate significant tax cases.  Criminal Investigation will also optimize the use of parallel proceedings in order to reduce the amount of lost revenue from abusive schemes while the criminal investigation is in progress. 

Criminal Investigation’s partnerships are key to the delivery of our goals, and CI will continue to enhance these relationships.  These partners include the IRS operating divisions, the United States Attorney's Offices (USAOs), and other law enforcement agencies (both foreign and domestic). To identify high-impact investigations involving non-compliant industries, schemes, and/or individuals, CI will make use of all available resources and criminal statutes within our jurisdiction.

International Tax Fraud - Criminal Investigation will develop a comprehensive international strategy to combat offshore tax evasion committed by both individuals and promoters of abusive schemes. 

Voluntary Disclosure Program - Criminal Investigation is the key entry point, through the voluntary disclosure program, for noncompliant taxpayers to get back into the tax system.  For those disclosures that meet the criteria for acceptance, CI will work closely with Small Business Self Employed (SBSE) and Large and Mid-Size Businesses (LMSB) in processing them for assessment and collection. For those that do not meet the criteria, CI will further investigate. 

Return Preparer Fraud - As part of the IRS Return Preparer Strategy, CI will partner with SBSE and Wage & Investment (W&I) to establish more visibility with the tax preparer community. Criminal Investigation will continue to investigate tax return preparers who promote fraudulent refund schemes designed to obtain fraudulent refunds or fraudulently reduce their clients’ tax liabilities.

Fraud Referral Program - The Fraud Referral Program is one of the key sources of high-income tax fraud investigations.  Criminal Investigation will continue to strengthen this program by working with SBSE, LMSB, Tax Exempt/Government Entities (TEGE), and W&I. 

Refund Crimes - The Scheme Development Centers (SDCs) will continue to develop high-quality, large-dollar investigations through the Questionable Refund Program (QRP) and Return Preparer Program (RPP), while creating new solutions to become more efficient and effective.  The SDCs will focus on identity theft, fabricated Forms W-2, and fictitious refundable credits.      

Employment Tax - In support of the Service-wide efforts to enhance employment tax compliance, CI will identify, develop, and investigate egregious employment tax cases involving a wide variety of industries and professions. 

Abusive Tax Schemes - Abusive tax avoidance transactions are comprised of a diverse array of schemes that include offshore employee leasing, reinsurance schemes, potentially abusive tax shelters, warehouse banking, and foreign and domestic trusts.  Criminal Investigation will strengthen our internal and external partnerships and continue to conduct parallel civil and criminal actions targeting promoters and culpable clients and to ensure the prompt examination of abusive scheme clients/investors. 

Non-Filers - Working with IRS operating divisions as a partner on the service-wide Non-Filer Strategy, CI will develop investigations of egregious, high-income non-filers, covering a wide geographic area and a broad spectrum of occupations and professions. 

Corporate Fraud - Partnering with SBSE and LMSB, CI will identify and investigate alleged financial fraud by corporations, corporate officers and executives in violation of tax and other laws governing them. 

Health Care Fraud - Criminal Investigation has joined the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association and will be working with the other member agencies in developing new and innovative ideas to combat fraud, waste and abuse in our health care system. 

Political/Public Corruption - Criminal Investigation will continue to participate in significant, high-profile public corruption cases that require our special agents’ unique financial investigative skills and will use all available criminal statutes including tax offenses to address situations where government officials violate the public’s trust.

Mortgage Fraud - Criminal Investigation will continue to participate in local FBI Mortgage Fraud Task Forces and the National Mortgage Fraud Working Group to contribute our unique financial skills to combat fraud in the mortgage industry.

Bank Secrecy Act - Criminal Investigation, both individually and through Nationwide Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Review Teams, will use Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data to identify legal and illegal source tax cases, as well as money laundering, terrorist financing, and narcotics investigations. 

Money Laundering/Financial Criminal Activity - Criminal Investigation will continue to work with United States Attorneys Offices to investigate significant high-impact financial investigations by applying all available statutes under our authority (Title 26, Title 18 and Title 31). 

Asset Forfeiture - Criminal Investigation will utilize our asset forfeiture authority to further our enforcement goals and take the profit incentive away from criminals. 
 
Counterterrorism - Criminal Investigation remains committed to pursuing financial leads related to terrorist financing and will continue to contribute financial investigative expertise and resources to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) and the USAO Anti-Terrorism Task Forces. 

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) - Criminal Investigation will maintain support for the National Drug Control and Money Laundering Strategies by continuing to provide resources to Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) investigations in order to dismantle and disrupt major narcotics trafficking/money laundering organizations and forfeit their illegal profits, while also targeting emerging narcotics-related financial schemes, including bulk-cash smuggling. 

Business Strategies

A. Increase workforce productivity through improvement in recruitment, diversity, retention and strengthened leadership.

B. Increase efficiency and quality through improvements in business systems and effective management oversight.

Criminal Investigation will enhance employee productivity and effectiveness by encouraging professional development and skills transfer and by facilitating employee communication.

Foster Clear Communication - Clear and frequent communication is a key element to the successful delivery of organizational goals.  Employees at all levels are encouraged to elevate ideas and issues, upward, downward and laterally. 

Improve Employee Satisfaction and Engagement - Through the Employee Satisfaction Survey process and various advisory councils, CI will address barriers impeding the full engagement of employees. Criminal Investigation will continue to strive to increase employee engagement, promote safety and wellness for all employees, and apply law enforcement occupational standards fairly and consistently.

Identify and Develop Criminal Investigation Leadership Candidates - Criminal Investigation will continue to identify and develop future leaders by using the Leadership Succession Review process and leadership training.  Criminal Investigation will create opportunities for progressive leadership development assignments in conjunction with the Accelerated Leadership Program, Frontline Leadership Readiness Program, and Leadership Development Programs by creating flexible personnel options to balance the needs of our employees and the business needs of our agency. 

Maintain a Knowledgeable Workforce - Criminal Investigation will continue to emphasize Knowledge Management (KM) as a means to facilitate learning, enhance technical expertise, and maximize the transfer of tacit knowledge that would normally be lost through attrition of experienced staff. 

Recruit High Caliber Employees - To recruit diverse, highly qualified candidates for professional, paraprofessional, and support positions, CI will use various specialized hiring strategies to supplement the competitive centralized hiring process, enhance hiring efforts using the Student Career Experience Program and the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP). The FCIP will be used as a targeted recruitment program to hire candidates who are proficient in foreign languages.

Maintain High Levels of Information Technology (IT) Services - In partnership with Modernization and Information Technology Services (MITS), CI will execute a service-wide policy to support a federally compliant, secure, modernized, and reliable technology environment, while ensuring the integrity of our data and maintaining the level of service required for a law enforcement function. 

Criminal Investigation Data Integration - Criminal Investigation will deliver an integrated approach to sharing organizational, administrative and investigative data. Criminal Investigation will introduce more systems and present additional CI, IRS, and third party data in various environments, while ensuring user access is only to appropriate data.  Criminal Investigation will align standards with agency policies and will ensure that CI’s data is secure.

Communication Strategy

A. Maximize the impact of criminal enforcement through a communications strategy that encompasses the effective utilization of publicity, education, and outreach.

Criminal Investigation will continue to recognize our key audience as the compliant taxpayer who deserves to know and trust that our government’s tax system is fair and consequences exist for those who violate the law.  In an effort to deter financial crime and enhance voluntary tax compliance, CI will use media and other outreach opportunities to maximize publicity of our investigations.  Publicity will focus on informing the American public about enforcement efforts and educating the public about fraud schemes and scams that they should avoid. 

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