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Tax Administration: Alternative Strategies to Obtain Compliance Data

GGD-96-89 Published: Apr 26, 1996. Publicly Released: Apr 26, 1996.
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Highlights

GAO assessed the potential effects on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) compliance programs of postponing the 1994 Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program (TCMP) survey and identified some potential short- and long-term TCMP alternatives.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service To provide the data necessary to help meet the objectives of IRS compliance strategies, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should identify a short-term alternative strategy to minimize the negative effects of the compliance information that is likely to be lost because TCMP was postponed.
Closed – Implemented
IRS closed this recommendation in January 1997 because Compliance Research stated that no short-term alternatives were determined to be available or feasible. The Price-Waterhouse report also did not reflect such alternatives.
Internal Revenue Service To provide the data necessary to help meet the objectives of IRS compliance strategies, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue should develop a cost-effective, long-term strategy to ensure the continued availability of reliable compliance data.
Closed – Implemented
IRS closed this recommendation in May 1997 because Compliance Research received the Price-Waterhouse report describing the development of a long-term strategy for gathering compliance data.

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Topics

Tax Policy and Administration
Administrative costsData collectionStatistical dataSurveysTax administration systemsTax nonpaymentTax return auditsTaxpayersVoluntary complianceTax returns