Tax Administration: IRS Should Expand Financial Disclosure Requirements
GGD-92-117
Published: Aug 17, 1992. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 1992.
Skip to Highlights
Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the adequacy of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) procedures and practices to detect and prevent employee conflicts of interest, focusing on the adequacy of the IRS employee financial disclosure process.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of the Treasury | The Secretary of the Treasury should direct the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to require annual confidential financial disclosure statements from all revenue agents, revenue officers, and criminal investigators. |
Closed – Not Implemented
IRS does not agree that all these employees should be required to file disclosure statements. Soon after this report was issued, Treasury sought Office of Government Ethics (OGE) approval of an alternative procedure for the approximately 40,000 employees involved, but OGE did not approve. Later, after revised OGE regulations were issued that gave agencies greater discretion in determining coverage for financial disclosure, IRS sought and obtained exceptions for the classes of employees involved from Treasury's Designated Agency Ethics Official.
|
| Department of the Treasury | The Secretary of the Treasury should direct the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to determine, with Treasury designated agency ethics official assistance, whether other employees are vulnerable to conflicts because of their duties and responsibilities, and decide whether they should file annual disclosure statements. |
Closed – Implemented
IRS and Treasury have identified and required about 5,800 employees to file annual disclosure statements.
|
| Department of the Treasury | The Secretary of the Treasury should direct the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to ensure that IRS reviewing officials have adequate information on employee investments and specific work assignments to enable them to determine whether reported financial interests conflict with employee duties and responsibilities. |
Closed – Implemented
Treasury instructed IRS to implement its own regulations and implementing procedures to address this issue. These procedures were approved by the Treasury's Designated Agency Ethics Officials in September 1993.
|
Full Report
Office of Public Affairs
Topics
Confidential communicationsConflict of interestsDisclosure lawFederal employeesFinancial disclosurePublic officialsTax administrationPostal service employeesTaxpayersTax returns