The Internal Revenue Service has revealed the winners of the agency’s “Tax Design Challenge” crowdsourcing competition that sought designs for a future online tax information system.The tax collection agency said Friday the three-week challenge received 48 submissions that a review panel considered for three prize categories such as overall design, best taxpayer usefulness and best financial capability.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the winning designs show potential features of a future online taxpayer account.
Andrew Miller’s IRS MyService received first place awards for overall design and best taxpayer usefulness worth $10,000 and $2,000, respectively, while second place spots for both categories went to Andrea Angquist’s IRS 365 for a total of $6,000.
For best financial capability, Sam Nguyen and Vidhika Bansal’s Taxes won the $2,000 first place award and Dante Vono’s MyTax Online made second place for $1,000.
IRS held the challenge in collaboration with the Mortgage Bankers Association — the sole sponsor of monetary prizes — to call on teams of designers, developers and thinkers across the U.S. to present options for taxpayer interactions.
MBA President and CEO David Stevens said the organization will work with IRS and stakeholders to build on the results of the challenge.
