Tax Policy: Status of IRS' Studies of the Refund Offset Program
GGD-89-60
Published: Apr 25, 1989. Publicly Released: Apr 25, 1989.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO studied the effects of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Refund Offset Program on voluntary tax compliance, focusing on: (1) IRS improvements to its methodology; and (2) ways to make future studies more precise.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Revenue Service | To improve future IRS studies of the effect of the Refund Offset Program on compliance with tax laws, the Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue should make the offset and control groups as comparable as possible. The studies should statistically control for prior tax-delinquent behavior and nontax characteristics, such as age and geographic location. |
Closed – Implemented
The IRS April 1989 report was controlled for prior tax-delinquent behavior. IRS has incorporated characteristics such as age and geographic location in follow-on studies. IRS has issued its report on the Impact of Nontax Refund Offsets of Voluntary Compliance in October 1992 (Revised February 1993). In this report IRS did attempt to control for certain nontax characteristics, as GAO recommended.
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| Internal Revenue Service | To improve future studies of the effect of the Refund Offset Program on compliance with tax laws, the Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue should incorporate the most current taxpayer information. This will result in a better understanding of the magnitude of any noncompliance problem, enable IRS to measure the level of enforcement actions required to make taxpayers compliant, and provide a better basis to analyze the temporary versus permanent nature of compliance. |
Closed – Not Implemented
IRS disagrees with the recommendation and plans no action. IRS does not see the need to use updated taxpayer information because it believes its definition of noncompliance is consistent.
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Topics
Child support paymentsComparative analysisDebt collectionEvaluation methodsNoncomplianceOffsetting collectionsTax administrationTax lawTax refundsTax returns