Generally, federal agencies are only allowed to spend the money that Congress has given them. During a government shutdown, agencies may not have funds—raising questions about whether work may continue. How do agencies plan for this? We reviewed 4 agencies’ contingency plans and operations during FY 2019’s partial shutdown. The plans generally followed federal guidance, but didn’t cover p...

Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to the recommendations where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations. This report outlines our 24 priority open recommendations for the Internal Revenue Service as of April 2020. For example, 2 recommendati...

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...

IRS estimates that in 2016 criminals used false identities to try to claim billions in tax refunds. IRS kept $10.5 billion out of their hands, but criminals got at least $1.6 billion. To help address this high risk issue, IRS works to verify the identities of millions of taxpayers each year. We reviewed IRS’s taxpayer authentication efforts and made 11 recommendations to help IRS stay ahead of...

When consumers order goods remotely, such as from a website or mail-order catalog, states have limited ability to collect taxes on the sale. Under current law, a state cannot require a remote seller to charge sales taxes unless the seller has a substantial presence, such as a store or warehouse, in the state. Congress has been considering legislation to expand states' authority to collect taxes f...

More than 80 federal programs (including 6 tax expenditures) provide aid to people with low incomes, based on GAO's survey of relevant federal agencies. Medicaid (the largest by far), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and the refundable portion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) comprised almost two-thirds of fiscal year 2013 federal obli...

GAO estimates that under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), about three-quarters of approximately 7 million children who were uninsured in January 2009 would be eligible for Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or the new premium tax credit. The remaining children had family incomes too high to be eligible, were noncitizens, or would be ine...

Based on available data, about 14 percent of small employers sponsor some type of retirement plan. Overall, GAO found that the likelihood that a small employer will sponsor a retirement plan largely depends on the size of the employer’s workforce and the workers’ average wages more than on the industry in which the employer operates and the geographic region in which the employer is loca...

The Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) collections program provides services to agencies to collect, deposit, and account for collections through a variety of methods. Electronic collection methods can reduce government borrowing costs and agency administrative costs, while improving compliance and security. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to ident...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that a potential gap between future needs and current spending for wastewater infrastructure of $150 billion to $400 billion could occur over the next decade. A number of entities are involved in planning, financing, building, and operating this infrastructure. Some of these stakeholders have suggested a variety of approaches to bridge this p...