Not sure if you caught the news about a computer glitch that didn’t account for payroll tax filings in 2004 and 2005 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Turns out that there was an $80,000 lien against the governator that claimed that he didn’t file taxes for household employees when, in fact, he had.

 

Why is this making headlines now?  Well, it turns out that the governor wasn’t notified of the situation until late last year because the IRS had sent the mail to his house instead of his office.  In case you’re wondering, the governor doesn’t receive mail at home due to security precautions. 

 

 

Seems to me that a little I.T. governance in the state of California’s computer systems may have gone a long way in terms of saving a lot of time and money.  In the ideal situation, the software glitch would had been identified and addressed and the system would have accommodated the address redirect.

 

Instead, this software glitch incurred the administrative expenses of running the erroneous report, sending it through the postal system to an address that doesn’t receive mail and bringing in the IRS for an unnecessary investigation.

 

Makes you wonder about the entire I.T. infrastructure and how an existing software glitch may affect citizens, especially as we’re in the midst of tax season.