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Streamlining Legal Review of Criminal Tax Cases Would Strengthen Enforcement of Federal Tax Laws

GGD-81-25 Published: Apr 29, 1981. Publicly Released: Apr 29, 1981.
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Highlights

The efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government's tax enforcement efforts have been hampered by a time-consuming and duplicative legal review process for criminal tax cases. About 75 percent of the investigations conducted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) do not lead to prosecutive recommendations or convictions.

Recommendations

Matter for Congressional Consideration

Matter Status Comments
Congress should ensure that the Departments of Treasury and Justice develop a streamlined legal review process for criminal tax cases and that any revised system realizes potential cost savings while safeguarding taxpayers' legal rights.
Closed – Implemented
Justice and IRS have made several improvements toward streamlining the legal review process, resulting in improved timeliness and better enforcement of timeframes. The legal review of non-grand-jury criminal cases is still redundant and time consuming. No further congressional action is expected. GAO plans to address this issue at a future time.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should jointly develop a streamlined legal review process for criminal tax cases.
Closed – Not Implemented
Justice and IRS have made several improvements toward streamlining the legal review process. These have resulted in improved timeliness in the legal review process. Both IRS and Justice have adopted better enforcement of established timeframes for legal reviews and have increased the relative proportion of grand jury cases which reduced the workload of IRS attorneys.
Internal Revenue Service The Attorney General and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should jointly develop a streamlined legal review process for criminal tax cases.
Closed – Not Implemented
Justice and IRS have made several improvements toward streamlining the legal review process. These have resulted in improved timeliness in the legal review process. Both IRS and Justice have adopted better enforcement of established timeframes for legal reviews and have increased the relative proportion of grand jury cases which reduced the workload of IRS attorneys.

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Topics

Cost controlCriminal procedureInvestigations by federal agenciesLaw enforcementLegal aidTax administrationTax lawLegal counselCriminal investigationsTaxpayers