Taxpayer Advocate Service: Caseload Has Grown and Taxpayers Report Being Satisfied, but Additional Measures of Efficiency and Effectiveness Are Needed
GAO-07-156
Published: Feb 22, 2007. Publicly Released: Mar 26, 2007.
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Highlights
Congress created the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) to assist taxpayers in resolving problems with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to propose changes to IRS's practices to mitigate problems affecting taxpayers in general. TAS uses case advocacy and systemic advocacy, respectively, to address these two goals. GAO was asked to address (1) why TAS's caseload has increased since 2004, (2) how well TAS conducted its case advocacy activities in terms of measures such as customer satisfaction and quality, and (3) how well TAS measures and reports its systemic advocacy efforts. GAO interviewed TAS and IRS managers and other staff, reviewed TAS and IRS documents, and analyzed TAS and IRS data.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Office of the Taxpayer Advocate | The National Taxpayer Advocate should improve TAS case advocacy performance measures with the addition of a true measure of efficiency that incorporates case complexity and quality and a cost measure. | To address this recommendation, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) has developed a time reporting system to assist in quantifying staff costs. This is being done in two phases. Phase I, which involves a timer application that is part of the Taxpayer Advocate Management System (TAMIS), tracks the amount of on-line time a TAS employee spends on a case. This phase has been completed. Phase II allows TAS staff to capture off-line time spent on a case. These data elements will be used as input to a case advocacy efficiency measure under development as of September 2010. Final approval of a case advocacy efficiency measure is scheduled for December 2010, to be followed by implementation and... testing. In 2011, we received documentation from TAS showing that the system changes are being implemented. We consider this recommendation to be closed as implemented.
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| Office of the Taxpayer Advocate | The National Taxpayer Advocate should supplement the detailed information on specific systemic advocacy issues currently being developed with a broad measure of the effectiveness of systemic advocacy. | TAS has identified the following metrics that may be useful in measuring the effectiveness of systemic advocacy: (a) percent of recommendations in National Taxpayer Advocate's Annual Reports to Congress addressed (e.g., through hearings, enactment, implementation of policy, etc.) or further pursued by TAS within four years of publication; (b)percent of TAS Immediate Interventions that are fully or substantially resolved within one year of identification; and (c) percent of TAS Advocacy Projects resolved or, where applicable, percent of TAS recommendations addressed by IRS within two years of project initiation (excluding issues also raised in the Annual Report to Congress). These...
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| Office of the Taxpayer Advocate | The National Taxpayer Advocate should improve TAS reporting by (1) describing actions taken in response to TAS legislative recommendations, (2) describing actions taken by IRS to address the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers, and (3) making it clear that the most serious problems included in the annual report to Congress are at least 20 of the most serious problems but not necessarily all of the top problems faced by taxpayers. | (1) The National Taxpayer Advocate's 2007 Annual Report to Congress includes a chart that summarizes congressional action on TAS legislative recommendations that were proposed in the 2003-2006 Annual Reports. (2) The Office of Internal Controls within IRS uses the Joint Audit Management Enterprise System (JAMES) to track open and implemented IRS, GAO, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration findings, recommendations, and planned corrective actions. JAMES includes planned actions, actions taken, the status of the recommendations, and the responsible organization for addressing the recommendations. IRS is now using JAMES to track the actions it has taken to address the most...
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