Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that APMA staff record and track contact with taxpayers. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. As of July 2020, IRS has taken steps to develop and implement an integrated case inventory and management system capable of recording and tracking taxpayer contacts. It expects this system to be deployed by October 2020.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that APMA staff record and track the hours they spend on MAP cases. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. As of July 2020, IRS has taken steps to develop and implement an integrated case inventory and management system capable of tracking actual time worked on cases. It expects this system to be deployed by October 2020.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement Program (APMA) identify and record the dates of key milestones throughout MAP case resolutions. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. As of July 2020, IRS plans to review its current practices in order to ensure they are in line with the GAO's recommendation with respect to MAP cases, as well as APA cases. IRS has taken steps to develop and implement an integrated case inventory and management system that it expects to deploy by October 2020.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that APMA puts procedures in place to review the quality of inventory data. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. As of July 2020, IRS has taken steps to develop and implement an integrated case inventory and time management system for APMA's MAP (and other) cases that it believes will help it quickly identify when case and inventory data do not meet quality standards. The new system is expected to be deployed by October 2020.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that APMA records the dollar amounts of MAP case outcomes in its database. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. As of July 2020, IRS has taken steps to record these amounts in the inventory management system that is expected to be deployed by October 2020.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that APMA analyzes trends in case characteristics as part of routine program management activities. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. As of July 2020, IRS is exploring ways to examine correlations between case management and administrative characteristics as part of ongoing, routine measurement of stages of the MAP.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should direct USCA to ensure that APMA identify and record categories of the tax issue relevant in the dispute. (Recommendation 8)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Status: Open

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's recommendation. APMA already tracks issue classification data for completed APA cases for its annual report to Congress on the APA program, and IRS agrees that a similar system can and should be pursued for MAP cases. Implementing an integrated inventory management system capable of tracking these data across both MAP and APA cases would be especially informative and helpful for APMA management. As of July 2020, the IRS has taken steps to develop and implement such a system. It is expected to be deployed by October 2020..

Recommendation: The U.S. Trade Representative should, with appropriate experts in Commerce, OMB, and GSA, improve the U.S. methodology for providing federal government procurement statistics to the WTO to ensure both accurate and more timely reporting, consistent with GPA requirements--for example, by providing preliminary estimates and updated values of covered federal procurement or by using an alternative methodology that bases measures of covered government procurement on actual annual obligations, if USTR determines that such an approach is consistent with WTO obligations.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2017 we reported that the United States had revised its approach to statistical reporting to the World Trade Organization (WTO) about covered federal government procurement from an "award values" methodology to an actual "cumulative obligations" approach in October 2015. The "cumulative obligations" methodology resulted in a more accurate measure of covered federal procurement, but it introduced a 6-year delay in reporting. We found this reporting delay inconsistent with the 2014 WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) requirement of reporting within 2 years of the end of the reporting period. We recommended that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should, with appropriate experts in Commerce, Office of Management and Budget, and General Services Administration, improve the U.S. methodology for providing covered federal government procurement statistics to the WTO to ensure both accurate and more timely reporting, consistent with GPA requirements--for example, by providing preliminary estimates and updated values of covered federal procurement or by using an alternative methodology that bases measures of covered government procurement on actual annual obligations, if USTR determines that such an approach is consistent with WTO obligations. Following the issuance of our report, in December 2017 USTR reported that they had worked with other agencies to improve their methods. While they decided to continue to report statistics using the "cumulative obligations" methodology they decided to also report "partially reported" (preliminary) statistics to improve the timeliness of U.S. reporting. This preliminary data was to be based on the same data used in the "cumulative obligations" methodology but can be submitted within two years of the end of the reporting period and therefore comply with GPA statistical reporting obligations. USTR submitted preliminary statistics for FY 2015 on November 15, 2017; for FY 2016 on October 31, 2018; and for FY 2017 on October 29, 2019. USTR will later update these statistics to reflect the "final" total value in 2021. GAO will continue to monitor this recommendation until that time.

Recommendation: To help ensure that FSOC is comprehensively identifying and considering companies, the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with FSOC members, should establish procedures to evaluate companies in Stage 2 and Stage 3 under both statutory determination standards when an evaluation in either stage concludes that a company does not meet one of the standards, or document--on a company-specific or more general basis--why the second determination standard is not relevant for determination evaluations.

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Financial Stability Oversight Council
Status: Open

Comments: In December 2019, FSOC adopted final interpretive guidance that revises its approach to evaluating and determining whether to designate nonbank financial companies. The final revised guidance prioritizes an activities-based approach to identifying and addressing potential risks to financial stability and states that FSOC will pursue company-specific determinations only if the activities-based approach is not sufficient. The guidance further states that if FSOC does consider a company-specific determination, its evaluation will focus primarily on the first determination standard. The guidance does not indicate the establishment of procedures to evaluate companies under both determination standards for the purpose of comprehensively identifying and considering companies or to document why the other standard is not relevant. We will continue to monitor FSOC's implementation of the guidance and any additional actions that may be responsive to our recommendation.

Recommendation: To help ensure that FSOC is comprehensively identifying and considering companies, the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with FSOC members, should develop a process to collect information necessary for Stage 1 analysis, as appropriate, from certain nonbank financial companies for which public or regulatory information is otherwise unavailable. For example, FSOC could have companies for which such information is unavailable and that meet certain characteristics (such as quantitative thresholds similar to those used in Stage 1) report necessary information to the Office of Financial Research.

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Financial Stability Oversight Council
Status: Open

Comments: In December 2019, FSOC adopted final interpretive guidance that revises its approach to evaluating and determining whether to designate nonbank financial companies. The final revised guidance introduces a new stage 1 of the designation process in which FSOC would notify a nonbank financial company under review and consider available public and regulatory information. While the guidance states that a company under review in stage 1 may submit information it deems relevant to the evaluation, FSOC would not require the company to submit information during stage 1. We will continue to monitor FSOC's implementation of the revised guidance and any additional actions that may be responsive to our recommendation.