Tax Administration

Potential Audit Revenues Lost While Training New Revenue Agents Gao ID: GGD-90-77 April 6, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed the: (1) extent to which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) used experienced revenue agents to train new agents; and (2) cost of training.

GAO found that: (1) from July 1986 to September 1988, IRS hired about 7,300 new agents; (2) in 5 IRS districts, experienced agents assisted in training 1,100 new hires, at a cost of about $840 million in unrealized audit revenues; (3) IRS could lose about $980 million in audit revenues by using on-the-job training in the five districts; (4) IRS concluded that the cost for training 1,000 employees was about half as much as it reported; and (5) for fiscal year 1991, IRS planned to contract for some of its training, and considered other alternatives to its current training program.



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