USA70: Why a Federal Tax Authority Used Digital Filing Uptake to Justify Enterprise Architecture Success

Sunil Dutt Jha
Jul 17
1 min read

Updated: Nov 3

Overview:

This case is part of a 100-diagnostic series revealing how US government revenue agencies have mislabeled channel adoption metrics as “Enterprise Architecture progress.”

In the federal tax domain, a recurring pattern is treating the growth in online filing volumes as proof of architectural maturity.

Millions of returns were submitted electronically, processing times for standard cases fell, and user satisfaction improved — yet the enterprise structure linking enforcement, exception handling, cross-agency data sharing, and compliance risk modeling was never modeled.

P1–P6 Insight Preview:

P1 (Strategy): Digital adoption was celebrated as a transformation milestone, but no architecture-led plan linked it to long-term compliance improvements or enforcement efficiency.

P2 (Process): E-filing workflows were streamlined, but audit selection, fraud review, and appeals processes remained largely manual.

P3 (System): Filing portals weren’t behaviorally integrated with enforcement databases, case management, or analytics systems.

P4 (Component): Portal modules, validation engines, and backend processing systems were managed in separate silos.

P5 (Implementation): Development sprints focused on user-facing features; structural backlog items like cross-agency integration were postponed.

P6 (Operations): Business ops handled standard returns efficiently, but tech ops maintained high-cost manual workarounds for exceptions and enforcement actions.

Stakeholder Impact Mapping:

CEO/Commissioner: Feels P1 — public success in adoption numbers, but compliance and enforcement KPIs are flat.
CIO: Feels P3 & P4 — core systems remain siloed, making investigations slow.
Sales Head (Taxpayer Engagement): Feels P2 & P5 — can promote digital convenience, but can’t promise faster resolution for complex cases.
Chief EA: Feels P1–P6 — architecture focused on channel growth, not end-to-end tax administration.
Head of Enforcement Operations: Feels P2, P3, & P6 — still waits weeks for actionable data from filed returns to trigger audits or investigations.