Management Letter:
IRS' Accounting Procedures and Internal Controls
AIMD-98-211R: Published: Sep 2, 1998. Publicly Released: Sep 2, 1998.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
Contact:
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GAO provided information on additional matters it identified in its audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) custodial financial statements for fiscal year 1997 regarding accounting procedures and internal controls that could be improved.
GAO noted that: (1) it found errors in deriving the financial statement balances; (2) yearend closing journal entries and schedules prepared to support the custodial financial statements did not always show evidence of supervisory review that might have detected and corrected those errors; (3) IRS' reliance on the experience of key personnel renders IRS vulnerable to loss of financial reporting institutional knowledge through normal staff attrition and creates significant risks that information supporting the financial statements will not be complete, accurate, properly authorized, and consistent; (4) inadequate review procedures allowed an error to occur in the amount of Earned Income Tax Credit disbursements reported to the Treasury; (5) data contained in IRS' master files were not always accurate; (6) pertinent transactions were not always recorded, which sometimes caused IRS' master file records to be outdated and inaccurate; (7) 55 percent of the offers-in-compromise cases it reviewed were not resolved within the 6-month time period established by IRS; (8) GAO found several instances where IRS recorded different types of transactions in the same general ledger account; (9) a worksheet that IRS used to support tax receipt and refund adjustments reported to the Treasury did not provide a detailed explanation for the reclassifications or document how the reclassified amounts were determined; (10) cash reconciliations with the Treasury and related journal entries did not always have evidence of supervisory-level review and approval; and (11) IRS did not always have readily available documentary support or evidence of supervisory review for performance measure calculations.
Feb 18, 2021
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Financial Audit:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Funds' 2020 and 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-284R: Published: Feb 18, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 18, 2021.
Nov 16, 2020
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Financial Audit:
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-174R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Federal Housing Finance Agency's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-201R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Securities and Exchange Commission's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-192R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020.
Nov 10, 2020
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Financial Audit:
IRS's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-162: Published: Nov 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 10, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Office of Financial Stability's (Troubled Asset Relief Program) FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-173R: Published: Nov 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 10, 2020.
Nov 9, 2020
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Financial Audit:
Bureau of the Fiscal Service's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Schedules of Federal DebtGAO-21-124: Published: Nov 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 9, 2020.
Nov 6, 2020
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FY 2020 Excise Tax:
Agreed-Upon Procedures Related to Distributions to Trust FundsGAO-21-163R: Published: Nov 6, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 6, 2020.
Oct 13, 2020
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DOD Financial Management:
Continued Efforts Needed to Correct Material Weaknesses Identified in Financial Statement AuditsGAO-21-157: Published: Oct 13, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 13, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
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Financial Management:
DOD Needs to Implement Comprehensive Plans to Improve Its Systems EnvironmentGAO-20-252: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
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