The IRS is in the final stages of reviewing a multimillion-dollar PR contract for communications support.

Porter Novelli is the four-year incumbent, earning more than $17M for the marketing communications work supporting the federal agency’s outreach and public education efforts.

The Wall Street Journal today polled tax interest groups as well as newly minted Edelman COO Matt Harrington on the image of the IRS, tapping a vein of sarcasm.

“Advancing the interests of the North Korean leadership at the moment would be harder than the IRS,” Harrington told the Journal.

Before Porter Novelli, Weber Shandwick and sister ad shop Foote, Cone & Belding in 2002 won a $20M-a-year communications pact with the IRS.