About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-04-79R 1 (2003-11-06)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaamiv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 November 6, 2003 The Honorable Mark W. Everson Commissioner of Internal Revenue Subject: IRS's Use of Information on Taxpayers Claiming Many Allowances or Exemption From Federal Income Tax Withholding Dear Mr. Everson: In September 2003, we responded to a request from Representative Elton Gallegly to provide information on the number of taxpayers who claimed more than 10 withholding allowances and taxpayers who claimed exemption from federal income tax withholding. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) calls such claims questionable Form W-4s. However, in the course of performing our work, we became concerned about the reliability of the information that IRS maintains on these taxpayers and decided that we could not use it to answer Representative Gallegly's questions. For background, see our letter to Representative Gallegly in enclosure 1. The objectives of this letter are to summarize our findings about the reliability of the information IRS maintains on taxpayers who claimed more than 10 withholding allowances or exemption from federal tax withholding and to bring to your attention some resulting questions about the value of IRS continuing to collect the information. Results We have two concerns about the information that IRS maintains on taxpayers who claimed more than 10 withholding allowances or exemption from federal tax withholding that precluded us from using it to respond to Representative Gallegly's questions. First, we are concerned about the completeness of the information because a significant number of employers may not send IRS the required forms. According to IRS's information, about 75 percent of the large employers with 1,000 or more employees in its Large and Medium-Size Business (LMSB) and Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) divisions that filed employment tax returns in tax year 2001 did not send IRS any forms. Although the number of questionable Form W-4s IRS might receive from individual employers can vary, it seems unlikely that 75 percent of employers with 1,000 or more employees could have no employees who submitted questionable Form W-4s. Second, some of the information may not be current-it may not reflect the current withholding status of some taxpayers. If an employee who previously claimed more than 10 allowances or claimed exemption GAO-04-79R IRS's Questionable Form W-4 Program

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most