IRS.gov Cited as Most Reliable Government Web Site

The Internal Revenue Service has the nation’s most reliable e-government Web site according to a leading private sector company that measures Web site performance.

Keynote Systems recently announced that IRS.gov is one

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of the first winners of the Keynote Performance Awards, a new awards program designed to recognize excellence in Web site performance. Keynote honored the fastest and most reliable Web sites in three categories: e-commerce, e-government and online travel and hospitality.

In e-government, the IRS won the performance award for Best Transaction Reliability with an average score of 99.8 percent.

“The IRS is strongly committed to the use of technology to help taxpayers, and taxpayers are embracing this technology,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “More than 61 million tax returns were filed electronically this year. And IRS.gov received more than 139 million visits this year, making it one of the government’s busiest sites.”

“We’re proud to have IRS.gov recognized as the e-government leader in reliability,” said Jimi Stricklin, IRS director of Web Services. “This award validates our goal of improving service to America’s taxpayers by delivering fast and reliable online resources and tax information.”

The award is based on Keynote’s E-Government Web Transaction Performance Index. The index measures a visitor’s ability to click through a number of pages on the Web site and successfully find the needed information. Measurements were taken between December 2003 and July 2004 every hour, seven days a week from the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas. Three aspects of each transaction were measured: accessing the site’s home page, entering a search topic and selecting or clicking on a specific search result. The site with the highest success rate, out of 100 percent, is recognized for the “reliability” award.

Many of IRS.gov’s most useful Web applications are those made possible through new capabilities developed and delivered through the IRS Business Systems Modernization Program. The program is a multi-year effort to modernize and update the nation’s tax administration systems.

Highlights of these new Web applications include “Where’s My Refund?” which taxpayers can use to find out about their tax refund and e-services, a suite of IRS.gov tools that give tax practitioners and professionals new ways of working with the IRS using fast, efficient and convenient online processes.