Tax Administration: IRS Needs to Improve Certain Measures of Service Center Quality
GGD-91-66
Published: Mar 20, 1991. Publicly Released: Mar 20, 1991.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed steps the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) took to monitor and improve the quality of its service center activities, focusing on the: (1) quality of correspondence with taxpayers regarding their accounts; (2) extent to which IRS erred in processing tax returns; and (3) accuracy of notices sent to taxpayers informing them about return changes.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Revenue Service | To better assess its returns processing performance, IRS should use an indicator to measure returns processing quality that identifies the extent to which returns are being sent to error resolution specifically because of errors made by service center staff in processing returns. |
Closed – Implemented
As recommended, IRS has started reporting the extent to which processing errors are made by service center staff.
|
| Internal Revenue Service | To better assess its returns processing performance, IRS should measure the overall quality of returns processing notices rather than just those that are referred to output review. To help fund the development of such indicators, IRS should reconsider how it spends the money currently available for service center quality control efforts and assess how the quality data it now collects might be used to help build the needed indicators. |
Closed – Implemented
IRS has developed accuracy and timeliness baselines based on a sample of all returns processing notices. Starting in fiscal year 1993, IRS will measure against those baselines.
|
| Internal Revenue Service | IRS should: (1) compile data on output review results in a way that enables management to identify specific problems that need to be addressed; and (2) ensure that the results are so used. |
Closed – Implemented
IRS says it redesigned the notice disposition reporting system and finished implementing it in July 1992. It remains to be seen how the information system will be used, but that's no basis for keeping this recommendation open.
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Topics
ErrorsFederal taxesInternal controlsQuality assuranceTax administrationTax refundsTax returnsTaxpayersWritten communicationData errors