IRS Use of Customs Data

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) use of U.S. Customs Service data for transfer pricing audits. GAO noted that: (1) IRS has made 17 requests for Customs data, 14 specifically for use in transfer pricing audits; (2) IRS has obtained a substantial tax adjustment in one of the 14 cases and reduced audit time in six cases due to the use of Customs data; (3) IRS field staff would like to receive the Customs data in a more usable form because of the tape's bulk and the need to find a computer specialist to assist them; (4) IRS is increasing its efforts to make its field staff aware of the availability of Customs data; and (5) the accessibility of Customs data will become more important as data requests increase.