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Tax Administration: IRS Notices Can Be Improved

GGD-95-6 Published: Dec 07, 1994. Publicly Released: Dec 07, 1994.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) taxpayer notices, focusing on: (1) possible improvements to the notices; and (2) IRS processes for ensuring that its notices clearly convey essential information to taxpayers.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should test the feasibility of using Correspondex to produce Individual Master File (IMF) and Business Master File (BMF) notices and, if possible, transfer as many IMF and BMF notices as practical to the Correspondex system. To help the transition to Correspondex, the notices should be transferred in stages and a mechanism should be established or an existing body, such as the National Automation Advisory Group, should establish the order in which notices would be transferred. The ease of the transition, the costs of the transfer, and the benefits of making these transfers should all be considered in establishing the order.
Closed – Implemented
A contractor for IRS studied the feasibility of using Correspondex and other systems to produce taxpayer notices, and decided to use one of the other systems. The system chosen is easier to program, less labor-intensive, and less costly to operate.
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should establish a system to monitor proposed notice text revisions to oversee progress or problems encountered in improving notice clarity. This system should be able to identify when a revision was proposed and the revision status at all times until it is implemented. The Commissioner should include in the monitoring system a threshold beyond which delays must be appropriately followed up and resolved.
Closed – Implemented
IRS has established a procedure to annually obtain reports from operational areas on the status of proposed revisions to notices. A bulletin board will allow all functional areas involved in the notice revision process to access the tracking system information and send status information to the Office of Notice Clarity. The system will include thresholds beyond which delays at various points in the process must be followed up. The IRS Senior Council for Management Controls has approved this action.

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Topics

Federal taxesSoftwareTax administration systemsWritten communicationTaxpayersComputer programmingSystems modernizationPublicationsComputer systemsWord processing