Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Business Case

Print

Table of Contents

  • Investment Summary Information
  • Investment Detail
  • Investment and Contracts
  • Historic CIO Rating
  • Investment Spending
  • Projects and Activities Detail
Section A: Investment Summary Information
Investment Name
Modernized e-File (MeF)
Unique Investment Identifier
015-000000045

Investment Description

Modernized e-File (MeF) is a critical component of the tax filing system. It provides service to institutional taxpayers by delivering a web-based system that allows electronic filing of corporate, individual, partnership, exempt organization and excise tax returns through the Internet. Modernized e-File (MeF) is one of Treasury’s high value assets (HVAs) for its critical role in tax administration. The Office of Management and Budget defines HVAs as “those assets, systems, facilities, data, and datasets that are of particular interest to potential adversaries”.
Agency Department of the Treasury
Point of Contact Tony Arcadi - CIO email Not Provided
Investment Type Major IT Investments
Bureau Internal Revenue Service
Mission Support Not Applicable
Shared Service Category Not Applicable
Shared Service Identifier Not Applicable
TMF Initiatives
  • Not Applicable
FY 2025 IT Spending $0 M
Current CIO Rating 4
Data As Of: 09/19/2024

Total Projects

4

Cost Variance

  • 3Low
  • 0Medium
  • 1High

Schedule Variance

  • 3Low
  • 1Medium
  • 0High

Cost Variance

  • Low: Projects that have <10% Cost Variance
  • Medium: Projects that have ≥10% and <30% Cost Variance
  • High: Projects that have ≥30% Cost Variance
Cost Variance: ((Planned Total Costs - Projected or Actual Total Costs) / Planned Total Cost) x 100

Schedule Variance

  • Low: Projects that have <10% Schedule Variance
  • Medium: Projects that have ≥10% and <30% Schedule Variance
  • High: Projects that have ≥30% Schedule Variance
Schedule Variance: ((Planned Completion Date - Projected or Actual Completion Date) / Project Duration) x 100

Cost and Schedule Variance color coding is based on absolute values. For example, a +40% variance and a -40% variance are both High/Red.
Couldn't load image

Download: Project and Variance Source Data (CSV)
Date Investment First Submitted
09/24/2021
Date of Last Investment Detail Update
09/19/2024
Section B: Investment Detail
  1. Briefly describe the investment's return on investment, including benefits internal and external to the government and outcomes achieved or planned.
    Benefits of MeF include a cost savings of $2 for filing a business return vs. a paper return. As of December 31, 2022, over 64M BMF returns have been accepted this translates to a cost savings of $128M. For individual returns the cost savings are $3.13 per return. As of December 31,2022, over 170.6M IMF returns have been accepted. The total IMF cost savings are $534M. Total cost savings for MeF program are therefore $662M. For FY2022 the total cost expended for MeF is $53.2M. As a result, the MeF Return on investment is 1244%. MeF receives, and processes e-file returns in an Internet environment. MeF provides for real time processing of acknowledgements, streamlined error detection, standardization of business rules and requirements across form types, capability to attach PDF files, and capability for IRS employees to view MeF return data through the Employee User Portal (EUP) and also the Business Objects Reports. MeF contributes to Treasury's Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Performance Reference Model (PRM) objectives 'Increase Voluntary Tax Compliance'; and 'Increase electronic transactions within the public to improve service, prevent fraud and reduce costs'.
Section C: Investment and Contracts

Public URLs

Contracts

Section D: Historic CIO Rating
CIO Rating Date Comments
4 Oct 16, 2023 CV: 20.29% SV: 16.64% OMV: 33.07% OVERALL: 15.63% (Green) As of Sep 30, taxpayers submitted 297.4 million Individual Master File (IMF) Returns along with over 56.9 million Business Master File (BMF) returns for a combined total of over 354.3 million returns. The 2023 submissions represent a decrease of 1.8% when compared to the same period in 2022 (over 304.7 million IMF returns and over 56 million BMF returns for a total of over 360.7 million returns). (10/19/2023).
4 Sep 19, 2023 CV: 1.53% SV: 11.89% OMV: 14.20% OVERALL: 5.03% (Green) As of Aug 31, taxpayers submitted 293 million Individual Master File (IMF) Returns along with over 52.6 million Business Master File (BMF) returns for a combined total of over 345.6 million returns. The 2023 submissions represent a decrease of 1.2% when compared to the same period in 2022 (over 299.8 million IMF returns and over 50 million BMF returns for a total of over 349.8 million returns). (09/19/2023).
4 Aug 17, 2023 CV: 1.53% SV: 0.00% OMV: 14.20% OVERALL: 2.06% (Green) As of July 31, taxpayers submitted 287.4 million Individual Master File (IMF) Returns along with over 50.0 million Business Master File (BMF) returns for a combined total of over 337.4 million returns. The 2023 submissions represent a decrease of 1.8% when compared to the same period in 2022 (over 295.9 million IMF returns and over 47.8 million BMF returns for a total of over 343.7 million returns). (08/17/2023).
4 Jul 18, 2023 CV: 1.53% SV: 0.00% OMV: 14.20% OVERALL: 2.06% (Green) As of June 30, taxpayers submitted 284.5 million Individual Master File (IMF) Returns along with over 44.2 million Business Master File (BMF) returns for a combined total of over 328.7 million returns. The 2023 submissions represent a decrease of 1.6% when compared to the same period in 2022 (over 291.5 million IMF returns and over 42.5 million BMF returns for a total of over 334 million returns). (07/18/2023).
4 Jun 15, 2023 CV: 1.53% SV: 0.00% OMV: 29.99% OVERALL: 6.01% (Green) Release 10.7 MS 3/4A completed on April 13, 2023. Cost Variance for Release 10.7 MS 3/4A was 2.17% due to less than anticipated Unified Work Requests (UWRs) received from MeF business partners. Release 10.6 Maintenance Defect 2 (MD2) delivered to Enterprise System Testing. MeF has currently no Operational Metric variance. (06/15/2023).
4 May 18, 2023 CV: 1.53% SV: 0.00% OMV: 29.99% OVERALL: 6.01% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (05/18/2023).
4 Apr 20, 2023 CV: 1.53% SV: 0.00% OMV: 29.99% OVERALL: 6.01% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (04/20/2023).
4 Mar 21, 2023 CV: 1.32% SV: 0.00% OMV: 51.70% OVERALL: 11.38% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (03/21/2023).
4 Feb 22, 2023 CV: 1.32% SV: 0.00% OMV: 51.70% OVERALL: 11.38% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (02/22/2023).
4 Jan 20, 2023 CV: 1.32% SV: 0.00% OMV: 51.70% OVERALL: 11.38% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (01/20/2023).
4 Dec 16, 2022 CV: 0.00% SV: 0.00% OMV: 31.91% OVERALL: 6.10% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (12/16/2022).
4 Nov 23, 2022 CV: 0.00% SV: 0.00% OMV: 31.91% OVERALL: 6.10% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (11/23/2022).
4 Oct 21, 2022 CV: 1.64% SV: 0.00% OMV: 31.91% OVERALL: 6.51% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (10/21/2022).
4 Sep 29, 2022 CV: 1.64% SV: 0.00% OMV: 15.24% OVERALL: 2.35% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (09/29/2022).
4 Aug 19, 2022 CV: 1.64% SV: 0.00% OMV: 15.24% OVERALL: 2.35% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (08/19/2022).
4 Jul 25, 2022 CV: 1.64% SV: 0.00% OMV: 15.24% OVERALL: 2.35% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (07/25/2022).
4 Jun 22, 2022 CV: 1.64% SV: 0.00% OMV: 25.73% OVERALL: 4.97% (Green) This investment is operating within expectations. (06/22/2022).
4 May 23, 2022 CV: 1.64% SV: 0.00% OMV: 25.73% OVERALL: 4.97% (Green) As of Mar 31, taxpayers submitted over 277.6 million IMF Returns along with over 39.4 million Business Master File returns for a total of over 317 million returns. The 2022 submissions represent an increase of 28.66 % when compared to the same period in 2021 (over 212 million IMF returns and over 34.4 million BMF returns for a total of over 246.4 million returns). MeF has currently no Operational Metric variance. (05/23/2022).
4 Apr 22, 2022 CV: 1.37% SV: 0.00% OMV: 25.73% OVERALL: 4.90% (Green) As of Mar 31, taxpayers submitted over 166.5 million IMF Returns along with nearly 28.1 million Business Master File returns for a total of over 194.6 million returns. The 2022 submissions represent an increase of 6.01 % when compared to the same period in 2021 (over 158.5 million IMF returns and nearly 25 million BMF returns for a total of over 183.5 million returns). MeF has currently no Operational Metric variance. (04/22/2022).
Data Last Updated On: 04/22/2022
Section E: Investment Spending

Table 1: Distribution by Spending Type

Spending Type PY 2024 CY 2025 BY 2026
DME Costs 0 0 0
O&M Costs 0 0 0
Total 0 0 0

Table 2: Distribution by Cost Pools

Cost Pools PY 2024 CY 2025 BY 2026
External Labor 0 0 0
Facilities & Power 0 0 0
Hardware 0 0 0
Internal Labor 0 0 0
Internal Services 0 0 0
Other 0 0 0
Outside Services 0 0 0
Software 0 0 0
Telecom 0 0 0
Total 0 0 0
Cost PoolsCost in millions (M)

Table 3: Distribution by IT Towers

IT Tower PY 2024 CY 2025 BY 2026
Application 0 0 0
Compute 0 0 0
Data 0 0 0
Data Center 0 0 0
Delivery 0 0 0
End User 0 0 0
IT Management 0 0 0
Network 0 0 0
Output 0 0 0
Platform 0 0 0
Security & Compliance 0 0 0
Storage 0 0 0
Total 0 0 0
IT TowersCost in millions (M)
Data Last Updated On: 09/19/2024
Section F: Project Detail

Table 1: Project Details

Project Name Project UID Status Planned Total Cost ($M) Cost Variance (%) Planned Start Date Planned End Date Schedule Variance (%) Schedule Variance (Days) TMF Initiative
Modernized eFile Release 10.4 202258 Complete 0 3.7 0 0 Not Applicable
Modernized eFile Release 10.5 202473 Complete 0 3 0 0 Not Applicable
Modernized eFile Release 10.6 202570 Completed 33 3 2021-11-22 2022-12-08 0 0 Not Applicable
Modernized eFile Release 10.7 202632 Completed 35 34 2022-11-15 2023-12-14 27 27 Not Applicable
LowMediumHigh

Table 2: Project Related Details

Modernized eFile Release 10.4
  1. Are information technology investments adequately implementing incremental development methodology? (Y/N)
  2. What is the frequency of incremental development iterations? (ex. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or greater)
    Days
  3. Please describe the iterative development methodology being employed. (500 characters or less)
Modernized eFile Release 10.5
  1. Are information technology investments adequately implementing incremental development methodology? (Y/N)
  2. What is the frequency of incremental development iterations? (ex. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or greater)
    Days
  3. Please describe the iterative development methodology being employed. (500 characters or less)
Modernized eFile Release 10.6
  1. Are information technology investments adequately implementing incremental development methodology? (Y/N)
  2. What is the frequency of incremental development iterations? (ex. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or greater)
    Days
  3. Please describe the iterative development methodology being employed. (500 characters or less)
Modernized eFile Release 10.7
  1. Are information technology investments adequately implementing incremental development methodology? (Y/N)
  2. What is the frequency of incremental development iterations? (ex. 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months or greater)
  3. Please describe the iterative development methodology being employed. (500 characters or less)
Section G: Performance Metrics
Metric Description Performance Measurement Category Unit of Measure Reporting Frequency Agency Baseline Capability Measurement Condition Target 2025 CY Latest Actual Result Date of Latest Actual Result Met Target
Percent of business tax returns processed electronically by MeF. Strategic and Business Results percentage Monthly 0 Over target 73.58 2023-09-30 MET
Percent of individual tax returns processed electronically. Strategic and Business Results percentage Quarterly 0 Over target 92.79 2023-09-30 MET
Total quarterly cost savings derived from electronically filed tax returns. Savings achieved is based on an average of $10M target savings per quarter. This a periodic metric. Strategic and Business Results Millions of Dollars. ($M) Quarterly 0 Over target 19.1 2023-09-30 N/A
Error rate for electronically filed tax returns Financial Performance percentage Quarterly 0 Under target 8 2023-09-30 MET
The percentage of scheduled system availability per the approved Service Level Agreement, as documented monthly by IRS Enterprise Operations. Customer Satisfaction percentage Monthly 0 Over target 99 2023-09-30 MET
The average number of minutes within which electronic filers receive acknowledgement of their electronically filed tax returns. Customer Satisfaction minutes Monthly 0 Under target 4.8 2023-09-30 MET