If I were to speculate I would say the examiner does not want to allow the patent but cannot find good prior art, and thus does not know what to do with it. IRS has nothing at all to do with USPTO. Examiners are very honest people and I never heard of any undue influence being exerted from the outside. Sometimes there is internal pressure against approving certain types of patents but strictly from a PR point of view.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
