The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Publications 590-A and 590-B serve as a general handbook for millions of taxpayers with individual retirement accounts (IRA). However, the two-part publication provides limited information for IRA owners with unconventional assets surrounding complex tax rules in four compliance areas: (1) barred investments, (2) prohibited transactions, (3) unrelated business

Taxpayers have used a variety of abusive tax schemes involving tax-exempt entities. In some schemes, the tax-exempt entity is complicit in the scheme, while in others it is not. For example, an abusive tax scheme could involve multiple donors grossly overvaluing charitable contributions, where the tax-exempt entity is not part of the scheme. Conversely, some patient assistance programs—which ca

The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) latest tax gap estimate (2016) found that taxpayers voluntarily and timely paid about 81.7 percent of owed taxes for tax years 2008-2010, leaving an annual gross tax gap of $458 billion. IRS estimated a net tax gap—after late payments and enforcement actions—of $406 billion. GAO's work has found that three important factors contribute to the tax gap. (1) L

Federal law and guidance require that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the sensitive financial and taxpayer information that resides on its systems. However, taxpayer information held by third-party providers—such as paid tax return preparers and tax preparation software providers—generally falls outside of these requirements, acco

IRS continues to confront the ongoing problems of identity theft (IDT) refund fraud. The agency estimates that at least $1.68 billion was paid in IDT refund fraud in 2016. To help address this issue, consistent with GAO's prior reporting, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 advanced the deadline for employers to file W-2s to SSA to January 31 (about 1 to 2 months earlier than in p

Federal agencies generally use one of four payroll shared service centers (SSCs) to process employee timesheets, assure withheld tax is paid, and send Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement (W-2) data to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and state tax authorities. GAO found these SSCs generally sent this W-2 data to SSA and states in a timely manner for tax years 2015 and 2016. However, SSCs vari

The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) latest tax gap estimate found that taxpayers voluntarily and timely paid about 81.7 percent of the taxes they should have paid for tax years 2008-2010. As with past estimates, underreporting of individual income taxes accounted for the largest portion of the 2008-2010 tax gap. IRS believes the tax gap estimates are sufficiently reliable to provide a snapshot o

In fiscal year 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assessed its advance premium tax credit (PTC) program as susceptible to significant improper payments. CMS instituted a qualitative method for assessing the susceptibility of its program that was consistent with requirements, including assessing each of the nine required qualitat

The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Large Business and International division (LB&I) uses a variety of methods, such as computer models and staff reviews of returns, to identify tax returns for audit consideration. From the returns identified, managers and auditors in LB&I field offices select the returns to be audited. For the eight methods LB&I uses for identifying and selecting tax returns fo

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), and the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) provide tax benefits to millions of taxpayers--many of whom are low-income--who are working, raising children, or pursuing higher education. These credits are refundable in that, in addition to offsetting tax liability, any excess credit over the tax liability is refunded to