IRS' Fiscal Year 1988 Budget Request

GAO discussed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) fiscal year 1987 and 1988 supplemental budget requests, which call for staff increases of 10,395 positions and funding increases to $5.1 billion. GAO found that: (1) IRS has not developed an analytical framework and does not have the necessary information to determine whether the proposed allocation of additional resources was appropriate; (2) IRS needs to stabilize its service center staffing, which is seasonal and inexperienced; (3) IRS has experienced considerable demand for assistance in interpreting the Tax Reform Act of 1986; (4) since its automatic data processing (ADP) equipment is of increasing importance, IRS needs to closely monitor the progress of its ADP projects; and (5) the new IRS Service Center Replacement System was put into production without adequate testing.