Excise Taxes:
Use of Safe Harbor Look-Back Rules
GGD-97-175R: Published: Sep 25, 1997. Publicly Released: Sep 25, 1997.
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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed problems with the transfer of excise tax receipts to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, resulting from airlines' use of regulatory safe-harbor look-back rules to delay deposits, focusing on whether those rules could cause similar problems with the crediting of other excise taxes.
GAO noted that: (1) regulatory safe harbor look-back rules should not cause similar problems in the future for two reasons; (2) first, deposits of most excise taxes are covered by the modifications made this year as a part of the aviation excise tax legislation; (3) these modifications make safe harbor look-back rules unavailable for calculating deposits of taxes that were not in effect in the look-back period; (4) the aviation excise tax legislation covers most excise taxes that fund trust funds; (5) second, the two excise taxes that are still subject to safe harbor look-back rules--taxes on ozone-depleting chemicals and on firearms--are not deposited in a trust fund; (6) if taxes on either the ozone-depleting chemicals or firearms were revoked, those making deposits of the taxes could rely on the safe harbor provisions to delay deposits of taxes; and (7) however, both of these taxes are deposited in the general fund, not a trust fund; and thus any potential delayed deposit would not create trust fund problems.
Jan 14, 2021
Tax Administration:
Better Coordination Could Improve IRS's Use of Third-Party Information Reporting to Help Reduce the Tax GapGAO-21-102: Published: Dec 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Nov 18, 2020
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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
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Opportunity Zones:
Improved Oversight Needed to Evaluate Tax Expenditure PerformanceGAO-21-30: Published: Oct 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 9, 2020.
Oct 19, 2020
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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
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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
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Abusive Tax Schemes:
Offshore Insurance Products and Associated Compliance RisksGAO-20-589: Published: Jul 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 31, 2020.
Jun 29, 2020
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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
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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
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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
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Priority Open Recommendations:
Internal Revenue ServiceGAO-20-548PR: Published: Apr 23, 2020. Publicly Released: Apr 30, 2020.
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