I.R.S Videos Come Under Fire

An Internal Revenue Service “training and leadership” video based on “Gilligan’s Island,” the campy 1960’s television show, has emerged.

Full of plastic palm trees, feather boas and fruit, the spoof is intended to educate I.R.S. employees on processing the annual flood of federal tax returns. But while it indicates that the tax agency was inspired by Wal-Mart to introduce an automated check-processing system, it is prompting some senior lawmakers to question whether I.R.S. has lost its mooring.

The 16-minute video, made in 2011, features middle-aged I.R.S. employees in the roles of the marooned crew, complete with canned laughter and costumes (Mary Ann sports blue-ribboned ponytails; Gilligan, a white sailor’s hat; and Mrs. Howell, shiny evening dresses.)

At one point, “Mary Ann” recalls that “years ago, I was in a Wal-Mart, and the lady took my check and zipped it through this machine and handed it back, and I stood there kind of amazed. I wondered why we couldn’t move forward and deposit checks just like Wal-Mart did when I had been there.” She continues, “lo and behold, we decided to test that process and technology.”

An earlier training video modeled on “Star Trek” featured I.R.S. employees costumed as Captain Kirk, Dr. Spock and the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew combating tax fraud on an alien planet called “Notax.”

The I.R.S. has stepped up scrutiny of wealthy taxpayers in recent years, with those earning $10 million or more now facing a 27.4 percent audit rate. While that is slightly below 2011’s rate of 29.9 percent, it is still up sharply from 18.4 percent in 2010 and just 10.6 percent in 2009.

The agency suffers from perennial criticism that it does not handle taxpayers’ questions efficiently or consistently. “Gilligan” seemed to admit as much, saying in the video that stumped agency employees were “embarrassed” to use a thick internal manual known as the P & R Guide, or Probe and Response, “because it gave the impression that we did not know the answers.”

Asked about the videos, Michelle Eldridge, an I.R.S. spokeswoman, said that “Gilligan’s Island” was an introduction to a 12-hour video course used to train 1,900 employees over 400 sites. The six-minute “Star Trek” video, made in 2010, was used as an introduction in a training conference.

Both films were shot in at an I.R.S. film-production studio in New Carrollton, Md., and cost a total $60,000 in taxpayer dollars. Ms. Eldridge said that “Gilligan’s Island” had saved the agency more than $1.5 million in training costs.

More than 120 official I.R.S. videos, all available on YouTube, have more than five million views, including 1.4 million this tax-filing season.

Some recent views came from the office of Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee.

“To the extent the “Gilligan’s Island” video tries to address better accuracy, it might be more justifiable than the “Star Trek” video,” said Mr. Grassley, a critic of the I.R.S. “The space video doesn’t seem to have any training value…it appears the I.R.S. wasted taxpayer money.”

Ms. Eldridge conceded that the Star Trek video “did not reflect the best stewardship of resources.”