The Internal Revenue Service apologized on Friday evening for spending taxpayer funds to produce a six-minute Star Trek parody starring IRS workers. The video was shown at a 2010 training and leadership conference and, along with a Gilliganโ€™s Islandโ€“themed video, cost $60,000 to produce. (Investigators on the House Ways and Means Committee determined that the latter video served a legitimate training purpose, and it was not released.)

The video, which was filmed in the IRSโ€™s Maryland studio, makes use of an elaborate set and costumes to depict a scene in which the spaceship is hurtling toward the planet โ€œNotax.โ€

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In a statement to the Associated Press, the IRS said that it โ€œrecognizes and takes seriously our obligation to be good stewards of government resources and taxpayer dollars,โ€ and acknowledges that โ€œthere is no mistaking that this video did not reflect the best stewardship of resources.โ€ The agency vowed that steps had been taken to โ€œensure that all IRS videos are handled in a judicious manner that makes wise use of taxpayer funds while ensuring a tone and theme appropriate for the nationโ€™s tax system.โ€

In its defense, the IRS maintained that the video was a โ€œwell-intentioned, lighthearted introduction to an important conference during a difficult period for the IRS.โ€