<story><title>IRS programming mystery continues</title><url>https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/irs-programming-mystery-continues/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jimrandomh</author><text>Not a mystery, and discussed previously on HN before. The IRS abandoned this technology because it lost key employees, because it was not legally allowed to pay market rates for them. Discussion in 2018: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=16377804&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=16377804&lt;/a&gt; .</text></comment>
<story><title>IRS programming mystery continues</title><url>https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/irs-programming-mystery-continues/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>aejnsn</author><text>Can someone explain to me why the IRS even bothered with a patent application on software? Those are taxpayer dollars being used to fund that innovation--unless it&amp;#x27;s a classified technology, it should be public domain.&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, why did the IRS spend time and salaries to reinvent the wheel for a solution that is likely to exist as an OTS product?</text></comment>