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Tax Administration: Better Measures Needed to Assess Progress of IRS' One-Stop Service

GGD-94-131 Published: Aug 29, 1994. Publicly Released: Aug 29, 1994.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to implement one-stop telephone service to respond to taxpayer questions and complaints.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should develop better measures of one-stop service that do not include instances where taxpayers will likely need to contact IRS again about the same matter. The measures developed should apply to all taxpayer telephone inquiries, including account-related, tax law, and procedural inquiries as well as calls to automated collection sites and forms distribution sites, service center correspondence activities, and walk-in sites. Moreover, they should be designed in such a way that they enable IRS to: (1) gauge its progress toward meeting its 1998 one-stop service goal; (2) identify and correct problems that might impede IRS progress toward the goal; and (3) compare delivery of one-stop service among various taxpayer services available at IRS.
Closed – Implemented
IRS changed and expanded its definition of one-stop service in accordance with the recommendation. The new measure "initial contact resolution" has both baselines and goals to assess performance.

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Topics

Customer serviceInternal controlsQuality controlTax administration systemsTaxpayersTelephonesTax lawsTax administrationPrivate sectorConsumer complaints