Recommendation: To promote retirement savings without creating permanent tax-favored accounts for a small segment of the population, Congress should consider revisiting the use of IRAs to accumulate large balances and consider ways to improve the equity of the existing tax expenditure on IRAs. Options could include limits on (1) the types of assets permitted in IRAs, (2) the minimum valuation for an asset purchased by an IRA, or (3) the amount of assets that can be accumulated in IRAs and employersponsored plans that get preferential tax treatment.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: No legislation limiting account owner accumulations enacted as of February 2020. In its October 2014 report, GAO found that individuals with limited, occupationally related opportunities could engage in sophisticated investment strategies and accumulate considerable tax-preferred wealth in IRAs and subsequently suggested to Congress legislative options. The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on a range of IRA policy issues in September 2014 for which GAO provided a statement for the record that covered preliminary data on IRA balances. The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, enacted in December 2019 as division O of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, amended a number of requirements related to retirement accounts (Public Law 116-94). For example, section 401 limits inherited beneficiaries' ability to continue tax deferral to 10 years beyond the account owner's death. This provision somewhat reduces the long-term financial benefits of accumulating large balances in IRA accounts. However the Act did not adopt any of the other limits identified in GAO's October 2014 report. Without legislation, the intended broad-based tax benefits of IRAs are likely to continue to be skewed toward a select group of individuals.

Recommendation: To improve IRS's ability to detect and pursue noncompliance associated with undervalued assets sheltered in IRAs and prohibited transactions, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should work in consultation with the Department of the Treasury on a legislative proposal to expand the statute of limitations on IRA noncompliance to help IRS pursue valuation-related misreporting and prohibited transactions that may have originated outside the current statute's 3-year window.

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

Comments: IRS agreed with GAO's October 2014 recommendation on IRAs with large balances and said it had discussed the recommendation with Treasury's Office of Tax Policy and Benefits Tax Counsel. Consequently, IRS said Treasury is aware of IRS's willingness to support legislative efforts in this area. Ultimately, Treasury reviews all tax legislative proposals and presents the administration's tax proposals for congressional consideration. However, Treasury has not released a legislative proposal as of January 2020. GAO reported in January 2020 that IRS examination said the 3-year statute of limitations for assessing taxes owed remains an obstacle in pursuing noncompliance that may span the many years of an IRA investment.

Recommendation: To help taxpayers better understand compliance risks associated with certain IRA choices and improve compliance, the Commissioner of Revenue should, building on research data on IRAs holding nonpublic assets, identify options to provide outreach targeting taxpayers with nonpublic IRA assets and their custodians, such as reminder notices that engaging in prohibited transactions can result in loss of the IRA's tax-favored status.

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

Comments: IRS has taken some action to provide general outreach and as of January 2020 has ongoing compliance research that could inform additional opportunities to target outreach to taxpayers with nonmarketable IRA assets at greater risk of noncompliance, as GAO recommended in October 2014. In June 2016, IRS published information on IRS.gov outlining the new information to be reported for nonmarketable IRA assets and included a general caution that IRAs with nonmarketable investments or assets under direct taxpayer control may be subject to a heightened risk of committing prohibited transactions. This caution is similar to those that IRS added to its publications about IRA contributions and distributions. It is a step toward helping taxpayers better understand which investments pose greater risks. In February 2018, IRS completed its first analysis of new information about the amounts and types of nonpublic IRA assets from Form 5498 for tax year 2016 that was filed in 2017. In October 2019, IRS also completed an interim compliance research project examining a sample of tax returns to determine whether the beneficiary of the IRA caused his or her IRA to engage in a prohibited transaction. As of January 2020, IRS was conducting a new compliance research project examining IRAs holding certain nonpublic asset types. The compliance research began in February 2019 and is to be completed in January 2021. Unless IRS augments outreach based on reliable data about nonpublicly traded IRA investments, taxpayers at greater risk may not be able to ensure compliance with rules on prohibited transactions.

Recommendation: In order to significantly reduce the uncertainty that some taxpayers have about their ability to earn credits for their research activities, the Secretary of the Treasury should issue regulations clarifying the definition of gross receipts for purposes of computing the research credit for controlled groups of corporations.

Agency: Department of the Treasury
Status: Open

Comments: Treasury issued proposed regulations clarifying the definition of gross receipts on December 13, 2013 and solicited public comments. During the course of 2014, tax practitioners and business executives submitted comments criticizing the regulations and asking for them to be withdrawn. As of March 2020, Treasury has yet to issue final regulations that would include responses to these criticisms. The regulations would not become effective until the tax year beginning after the date on which the regulations are published in final form.

Recommendation: In order to significantly reduce the uncertainty that some taxpayers have about their ability to earn credits for their research activities, the Secretary of the Treasury should provide additional guidance to more clearly identify what types of activities are considered to be qualified support activities.

Agency: Department of the Treasury
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, Treasury has not issued regulations to clarify what types of activities are considered to be qualified support activities.

Recommendation: In order to significantly reduce the uncertainty that some taxpayers have about their ability to earn credits for their research activities, the Secretary of the Treasury should provide additional guidance to more clearly identify when commercial production of a qualified product is deemed to begin.

Agency: Department of the Treasury
Status: Open

Comments: As of March 2020, Treasury has not issued regulations to more clearly identify when commercial production of a qualified product is deemed to begin.

Recommendation: In order to reduce economic inefficiencies and excessive revenue costs resulting from inaccuracies in the base of the research tax credit, Congress should consider eliminating the regular credit option for computing the research credit.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: While legislation has been introduced to expand the research tax credit, as of December 2019, Congress had not enacted legislation to eliminate the regular computation option for the research tax credit or to add a minimum base to the ASC option, as GAO suggested in November 2009. The credit is designed to encourage business innovation by providing a subsidy for new research. Continued use of the regular computation credit option, which arbitrarily distributes subsidies across taxpayers, can distort investment decisions so that research spending and economic activity are not allocated to sectors that offer the highest returns to society. These misallocations may reduce economic efficiency and, thereby, diminish any economic benefits of the credit.

Recommendation: In order to reduce economic inefficiencies and excessive revenue costs resulting from inaccuracies in the base of the research tax credit, Congress should consider adding a minimum base to the ASC that equals 50 percent of the taxpayer's current-year qualified research expenses.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: While legislation has been introduced to expand the research tax credit, as of December 2019, Congress had not enacted legislation to eliminate the regular computation option for the research tax credit or to add a minimum base to the ASC option, as GAO suggested in November 2009. The credit is designed to encourage business innovation by providing a subsidy for new research. Continued use of the regular computation credit option, which arbitrarily distributes subsidies across taxpayers, can distort investment decisions so that research spending and economic activity are not allocated to sectors that offer the highest returns to society. These misallocations may reduce economic efficiency and, thereby, diminish any economic benefits of the credit. Adding a minimum base for the ASC would reduce the revenue cost of the credit without affecting the average incentive it provides for research.

Recommendation: If Congress nevertheless wishes to continue offering the regular research credit to taxpayers, it may wish to consider reducing inaccuracies in the credit's base and to reduce taxpayers' uncertainty and compliance costs and IRS's administrative costs by updating the historical base period that regular credit claimants use to compute their fixed base percentages.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: While legislation has been introduced to expand the research tax credit, as of March 2020, no action has been taken by Congress to update the historical base period that regular credit claimants use to compute their fixed base percentages.

Recommendation: If Congress nevertheless wishes to continue offering the regular research credit to taxpayers, it may wish to consider reducing inaccuracies in the credit's base and to reduce taxpayers' uncertainty and compliance costs and IRS's administrative costs by eliminating base period recordkeeping requirements for taxpayers that elect to use a fixed base percentage of 16 percent in their computation of the credit.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: While legislation has been introduced to expand the research tax credit, as of March 2020, no action has been taken to eliminate base period recordkeeping requirements for taxpayers that elect to use a fixed base percentage of 16 percent in their computation of the credit.

Recommendation: If Congress nevertheless wishes to continue offering the regular research credit to taxpayers, it may wish to consider reducing inaccuracies in the credit's base and to reduce taxpayers' uncertainty and compliance costs and IRS's administrative costs by clarifying for Treasury its intent regarding the definition of gross receipts for purposes of computing the research credit for controlled groups of corporations. In particular it may want to consider clarifying that the regulations generally excluding transfers between members of controlled groups apply to both gross receipts and QREs and specifically clarifying how it intended sales by domestic members to foreign members to be treated. Such clarification would help to resolve open controversies relating to past claims, even if the regular credit were discontinued for future years.

Agency: Congress
Status: Open

Comments: While legislation has been introduced to expand the research tax credit, as of March 2020, no action has been taken by Congress to clarify for Treasury its intent regarding the definition of gross receipts for purposes of computing the research credit for controlled groups of corporations. In particular, it may want to consider clarifying that the regulations generally excluding transfers between members of controlled groups apply to both gross receipts and QREs and specifically clarifying how it intended sales by domestic members to foreign members to be treated. Such clarification would help to resolve open controversies relating to past claims, even if the regular credit were discontinued for future years.