Candidates, parties, and PACs spent about $6 billion on federal elections in 2017 and 2018, according to the Federal Election Commission. Among other things, this report provides views from a range of specialists on federal campaign finance issues. For example, specialists noted that campaign finance laws and regulations have not kept up with the internet and do not regulate online political ads...

Executive retirement plans allow some executives to defer their pay and related income taxes to future years. We looked at these plans and found: Benefits for executives—e.g., no limits on how much pay can be deferred Risks for executives—if companies go bankrupt, they may not receive deferred pay Little oversight information—oversight agencies don’t have much data on who’s participat...

Developers can apply for federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to help them build affordable housing projects. The amount of credit depends largely on project costs. Project costs we looked at varied widely (shown below), and federal oversight of costs is limited. Federal and state agencies could use data on variables that affect cost—such as square footage and building type—to better monito...

This is an E-supplement to GAO-12-554. This e-supplement provides an inventory of spending programs, tax expenditures, and other activities (collectively, "activities") that federal agencies and entities use to support rental housing, homeownership, or both. For each activity, this inventory includes the following information: (1) the implementing or administering agencies or entities; (2) a brief...

With trillions of dollars in cross-border financial activity, U.S. tax authorities and others around the world exchange information with each other to administer and enforce compliance with the tax laws of their respective countries. GAO was asked to (1) identify and describe all income tax treaties and other such agreements between the United States and other countries, (2) describe the volume of...

Federal and state governments have raised excise taxes on tobacco products to discourage tobacco use and increase revenues. Cross-border and illicit trade in tobacco products can undermine these policy objectives by avoiding excise taxes and increasing the availability of these products to consumers at lower cost. On June 22, 2009, Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control...

Nonprofit organizations, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), play an important role in providing a wide range of public services. To provide these services, these organizations rely on funding through federal grants and contracts, among other sources. Just as it is important for federal agencies to be held accountable for the efficient and effective use of ta...

Increasingly, the federal government relies on networks and partnerships to achieve its goals, and many of these involve nonprofit organizations. GAO was asked to assess (1) the mechanisms through which federal dollars flow to nonprofits and (2) what is known about federal dollars flowing through them to nonprofit organizations in fiscal year 2006. To address these objectives, GAO conducted a lite...

On October 30, 2004, the Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA) was enacted, establishing eight rights for federal crime victims and two mechanisms to enforce those rights. The legislation also directed GAO to evaluate the implementation of the CVRA. To address this mandate, GAO reviewed: (1) efforts made to implement the CVRA, (2) mechanisms in place to ensure adherence to the CVRA, (3) methods the Dep...

Various public records in the United States, including some generated by the federal government, contain Social Security numbers (SSN) and other personal identifying information that could be used to commit fraud and identity theft. Public records are generally defined as government agency-held records made available to the public in their entirety for inspection, such as property records and cour...