# The IRS's mail machines open and pre-sort envelopes, but staff still extract the contents, and one center turned off remittance detection because it misread mail

Page: https://flyvolo.ai/en/changes/ev-20220207-data-entry-clerk-9
Date: 2022-02-07 · Stage: Deployment
Can this record move a task judgement? yes
Occupation: https://flyvolo.ai/en/careers/data-entry-clerk

## Scope

United States. The inspector general reports that the IRS has 12 machines in operation that automatically open, count, sort and detect remittances at 15,000 to 25,000 envelopes per hour; that the Kansas City center turned off the remittance detection because it inaccurately read correspondence as containing a cheque, so the machine only opens envelopes and pre-sorts them before staff extract the contents; and that slicers sometimes cut the correspondence, which employees must tape back together. Mechanical automation at one agency, observed in 2021; it is not AI and gives no staffing change.

## Source

- Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration — 'Plans to Close the Austin Tax Processing Center Should Be Halted Until Hiring Challenges and Substantial Backlogs at Remaining Centers Are Addressed', Report No. 2022-40-015 (February 7, 2022) — https://www.tigta.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2025-08/202240015fr.pdf (primary source)

## What this means

Opening and sorting mail is machine work at scale, but taking out and checking what is inside still falls to people.

## What it does not show yet

Mechanical, not AI, at one agency, with no staffing figures.

## How to verify it yourself

Open TIGTA report 2022-40-015 and find "The IRS has 12 SCAMPS machines in operation".


More: https://flyvolo.ai/llms.txt