The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made considerable progress issuing guidance to taxpayers for Public Law 115-97—commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)—but has additional work remaining to issue all planned guidance, as shown in the figure. To improve efficiency of TCJA guidance development, IRS internally collaborated earlier and more frequently than during more rout

In accordance with the authority conferred by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended, GAO annually audits IRS's financial statements to determine whether (1) the financial statements are fairly presented and (2) IRS management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tests IRS's compliance with selected provisions of applicable laws, regulations, cont

The Department of Labor (DOL) has a process to grant administrative exemptions for individual retirement account (IRA) transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by law, such as an IRA buying investment property from the IRA owner. DOL evaluates applications using statutory criteria and follows administrative procedures codified in regulations. Applications for proposed transactions that are

A U.S. multinational corporation (MNC) operating in a foreign country is subject to taxes in that country as well as in the United States. The U.S. MNC's tax return may be audited by the United States or the other country. Such audits can result in an adjustment to the U.S. MNC's taxable income that may result in income being subject to tax in both countries. If the U.S. MNC disagrees with the ad

Millions of dollars in retirement savings are transferred to states as unclaimed property, only some of which is later claimed by owners. Of the 22 states responding to GAO's survey, 17 states provided data indicating that $35 million in unclaimed retirement savings was transferred to them from employer plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) in 2016. When account owners do not claim mone

Prior to February 9, 2018, when Congress enacted a statutory change requiring the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to include penalties for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) violations in calculating whistleblower awards, IRS interpreted the whistleblower law to exclude these penalties from awards. However, GAO found that some whistleblowers provided information about FBAR noncom

Generally, employers are required to withhold income taxes on employee pay, but employees can exclude part of their pay from withholding. Currently, the amount of an employee's pay to be excluded from withholding is determined by multiplying the number of withholding allowances an employee claims by a set dollar value. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance directs employees to claim withholding

In GAO's opinion, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) fiscal years 2017 and 2016 financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects. However, in GAO's opinion, IRS did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2017, because of a continuing material weakness in internal control over unpaid assessments. GAO's tests of IRS's compliance with

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) included a revenue provision for a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage to be administered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The tax would be imposed when an employee's annual cost of coverage exceeds an established dollar limit. This limit could be adjusted upward if an employer's workforce--based on its

Based on results of audits, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) views vessel operators to be substantially in compliance with requirements to report and pay the Inland Waterways Fuel Tax (fuel tax). IRS seeks to ensure compliance by auditing quarterly excise-tax returns filed by these operators, as well as identifying operators that failed to file (nonfilers). (1) Audits of filed returns: IRS data