A training and instructional video that spoofs “Star Trek” was produced by the Internal Revenue Service and reported on Friday, drawing criticism and mockery.
The video was obtained by CBS News, which filed a Freedom of Information request after the IRS had previously refused to provide a copy to the House Ways and Means.
Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr., chairman of the panel, said that the video was produced by the IRS’s own in-house television studio that’s based in New Carrollton, Md. The video features IRS employees.
“Space: the final frontier,” the narrator said in the video, mimicking the iconic inroduction of the sci-fi franchise. “These are the voyagers of the Starship Enterprise Y. Its never-ending mission is to seek out new tax forms. To explore strange new regulations. To boldly go where no government employee has gone before.”
Another training and instructional video parodies “Gilligan’s Island,” but the IRS has not made it available. The IRS informed Congress that the cost of producing both videos was $60,000. According to CBS, the IRS’s acting commissioner Steven Miller defended the investment, saying that the videos were played in more than 400 locations and saved taxpayers $1.5 million by avoiding in-person employee training.
But Boustany said he wants the IRS to provide a full accounting of expenditures in the television studio. And in a separate statement, which was also reported by CBS, the IRS said that more rigorous standards have been applied to its video productions since the Star Trek spoof was made in 2010.
“The space parody video from 2010 is not reflective of overall IRS video efforts, which provide critical information to taxpayers and cost-effective employee training critical to running the nation’s tax system,” the statement said. “In addition, the IRS has instituted tough new standards for videos to prevent situations similar to the 2010 video.”
