Paperwork Reduction Act

Because the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) constitutes the bulk of the governmentwide paperwork burden-hour estimate, changes in the agency's burden-hour estimate have a highly significant--even determinative--effect on the governmentwide total. Other agencies estimated that, in the aggregate, they had come close by the end of fiscal year 1998 to the 25-percent burden-reduction goal envisioned in the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. However, despite several initiatives to reduce IRS' paperwork burden, the agency's burden-hour estimate rose by 7.5 percent between 1995 and 1998, increasing the governmentwide estimate of the paperwork burden imposed on nonfederal entities. IRS said that most of the increase in its burden-hour estimates was due to factors outside its control, such as changes in economic activity and new legislative requirements. IRS is now trying to change the way that it measures the paperwork burden to correct what it believes are significant weaknesses in its current methodology, including reliance on out-of-date data and questionable technical assumptions.

GAO noted that: (1) because IRS constitutes the preponderance of the governmentwide paperwork burden-hour estimate, changes in IRS' burden-hour estimate have a highly significant--and even determinative--effect on the governmentwide total; (2) non-IRS departments and agencies estimated that, in the aggregate, they had come close to the 25-percent burden-reduction goal envisioned in the PRA of 1995 by the end of fiscal year 1998; (3) however, despite several initiatives by the agency to reduce its paperwork burden, IRS' burden-hour estimate increased by about 7.5 percent between fiscal years 1995 and 1998, resulting in an increase in the governmentwide estimate of the paperwork burden imposed on nonfederal entities; (4) IRS said that most of the increase in its burden-hour estimates was due to factors outside of its control, such as changes in economic activity and new legislative requirements; and (5) IRS is currently attempting to change the way it measures paperwork burden to correct what it believes are significant weaknesses in its current methodology, including reliance on out-of-date data and questionable technical assumptions.