Tax Administration

GAO developed trend data for various Internal Revenue Service (IRS) programs. This fact sheet provides trends for some mission-related indicators that IRS has traditionally used. Most of the indicators relate to resources, such as staffing; workload, such as the number of tax returns filed; or output indicators, such as the number of audits completed. Other trends relate to some of IRS' key enforcement programs and IRS' taxpayer service and tax return processing activities. For these same programs and activities, this fact sheet also includes information on recent developments within IRS relating to performance measures and gaps in IRS' management information that GAO pointed out in earlier reports.

GAO found that: (1) resource, workload, and output indicators reflect the level of performance at IRS as opposed to program results or program impact; (2) IRS has started to develop performance measures for increasing voluntary compliance, reducing taxpayer burden, and improving productivity and customer satisfaction; (3) IRS plans to measure how its components contribute to mission accomplishment; (4) IRS has traditionally relied on voluntary compliance and the tax gap to measure its progress; (5) the Enforcement Management Information System is generating various management information reports on revenue generated from each IRS enforcement program, but IRS is not using the data for management decisionmaking; (6) IRS is trying to prevent erroneous receivables from being added to the accounts receivable inventory; (7) IRS needs to develop impact measures for some of its collection activities; (8) IRS has improved its taxpayer assistance activities since the 1991 filing season, but taxpayers are having trouble getting through to IRS over the telephone; and (9) IRS publishes numerous forms, publications, and instructions to help taxpayers understand tax laws and meet their filing requirements.