IRS tests new central tax file database

The IRS has begun testing the Customer Account Data Engine, the database management system that will replace the nearly 40-year-old Master File and Integrated Data Retrieval System. “We launched a pilot three weeks ago,” said David A. Mader, assistant deputy commissioner of the IRS. Mader spoke at the second annual Treasury Information Processing Support Services Symposium at Washington.The IRS is testing CADE using 2001 data from 7 million to 8 million taxpayers who filed 1040EZ forms this year. “It’s a baby step,” Mader said.The test will run through December, and the IRS plans to use CADE to handle live tax data from 1040EZ forms for 2002 returns filed data next year. Computer Sciences Corp. is leading the modernization effort with a group that includes IBM Corp., KPMG LLC of New York, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Science Applications International Corp. Once the IRS converts from its old flat-file system to CADE, the service plans to update its data daily. Now, the agency takes up to eight working days to update the Master File using batch processing from tapes mailed from facility to facility.The 1.5T Master File consists of three flat files. The Individual Master File, or IMF, holds data about individual taxpayers; the Business Master File, or BMF, contains business returns; and the Nonmaster File holds cases that don’t fit into either of the other two categories. With CADE, IRS workers will access a central repository of taxpayer information from PCs, and taxpayers will be able get information on refunds within three days instead of six weeks.