Tax System:
Issues in Tax Compliance Burden
T-GGD-96-100: Published: Apr 3, 1996. Publicly Released: Apr 3, 1996.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
Contact:
GAO discussed business and individual taxpayers' federal tax compliance burden. GAO noted that: (1) the compliance burden is due to the tax code's complexity, ambiguous language, and frequent changes; (2) many businesses are uncertain about what they must do to comply with the code; (3) recordkeeping, time-consuming calculations, the interplay of state and local tax requirements, and Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) administration of the tax code add to the burden; (4) estimating businesses' tax compliance burden and costs would be difficult, since businesses do not collect the data needed to make reliable cost estimates of their compliance; (5) the greatest reduction in the tax compliance burden could be gained by simplifying the tax code; (6) return-free filing alternatives used in other countries could reduce individual taxpayers' tax compliance and IRS administrative burdens, but employers, tax preparers, and state tax systems could be further burdened or adversely affected; and (7) reducing businesses' and individuals' tax compliance burdens will be difficult because of tax policy tradeoffs, such as revenue, equity, and social and economic issues.
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
-
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.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here
Explore our Key Issues on Tax Policy and Administration
Explore our other Key Issues here
