Tax Administration:
IRS' Combined Annual Wage Reporting Reconciliation Program
GGD-89-21: Published: Dec 14, 1988. Publicly Released: Dec 14, 1988.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
Contact:
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Combined Annual Wage Reporting Reconciliation Program (CAWRRP), focusing on: (1) CAWRRP objectives and operations; and (2) tax amounts assessed, abated, and collected as a result of CAWRRP.
GAO found that: (1) under an agreement between IRS and the Social Security Administration (SSA), IRS assumed responsibility for matching employers' annual earnings information reported to SSA with the comparable quarterly earnings information and income tax withholding reports submitted to IRS; (2) the number of discrepancies with potential tax implications which IRS annually identified totalled about 500,000 between 1981 and 1984 and then increased to 791,000 in 1986; (3) IRS resolved an average of 54 percent of the discrepancies between 1981 and 1986; and (4) the discrepancies accounted for about 0.1 percent of the taxes withheld from 1981 to 1986. GAO also found that, from 1981 to 1984, IRS: (1) assessed employers additional taxes, interest, and penalties of $2.7 billion, but abated almost $1.4 billion of those assessments; and (2) collected almost $500 million. In addition, GAO found that IRS plans to double its staff assigned to CAWRRP cases in fiscal year 1989, which should allow IRS to resolve almost all of the cases with tax implications and help IRS identify patterns of employers who are responsible for the discrepancies.
Nov 18, 2020
IRS Reorganization:
Planning Addressed Key Reform Practices, but Goals and Measures for the Plan Have Not Been FinalizedGAO-21-18: Published: Oct 19, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 2020.
Nov 9, 2020
-
Opportunity Zones:
Improved Oversight Needed to Evaluate Tax Expenditure PerformanceGAO-21-30: Published: Oct 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 9, 2020.
Oct 19, 2020
-
Tax Administration:
Opportunities Exist to Improve Oversight of Hospitals' Tax-Exempt StatusGAO-20-679: Published: Sep 17, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 19, 2020.
Sep 23, 2020
-
Taxpayer Service:
IRS Could Improve the Taxpayer Experience by Using Better Service Performance MeasuresGAO-20-656: Published: Sep 23, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 23, 2020.
Aug 31, 2020
-
Abusive Tax Schemes:
Offshore Insurance Products and Associated Compliance RisksGAO-20-589: Published: Jul 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 31, 2020.
Jun 29, 2020
-
Taxpayer Compliance:
More Income Reporting Needed for Taxpayers Working through Online PlatformsGAO-20-366: Published: May 28, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 29, 2020.
Jun 16, 2020
-
Tax Exempt Organizations:
IRS Increasingly Uses Data in Examination Selection, but Could Further Improve Selection ProcessesGAO-20-454: Published: Jun 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 16, 2020.
May 1, 2020
-
Management Report:
Improvements Are Needed to Enhance the Internal Revenue Service's Internal Control over Financial ReportingGAO-20-480R: Published: May 1, 2020. Publicly Released: May 1, 2020.
Apr 30, 2020
-
Priority Open Recommendations:
Internal Revenue ServiceGAO-20-548PR: Published: Apr 23, 2020. Publicly Released: Apr 30, 2020.
Apr 1, 2020
-
Payment Integrity:
Selected Agencies Should Improve Efforts to Evaluate Effectiveness of Corrective Actions to Reduce Improper PaymentsGAO-20-336: Published: Apr 1, 2020. Publicly Released: Apr 1, 2020.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here
Explore our Key Issues on Tax Policy and Administration
Explore our other Key Issues here
