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GGD-80-89 1 (1980-07-16)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabatj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO United States General Accounting Office General Government Washington, DC 20548 Division 3-196969 The Honorable Jerome Kurtz JULY 16,1980 Commissioner of Internal Revenue Department of the Treasury P Dear Mr. Kurtz: Subject; The Internal Revenue Service Can Make the Estimated Tax Forms and Instructions Easier to Understand and Use (GGD-80-89) By letter dated December 24, 1976, the Joint Committee on Taxation asked us to examine how effectively the Internal Rev- enue Service (IRS) communicates tax law requirements to tax- payers. This letter, one report in a series in response to the Joint Committee's reIuest, deals with the forms and instruc- tions individual taxpayers use to comply with the estimated tax requirements. The estimated tax requirements are particularly trouble- some to taxpayers. Each year, millions of taxpayers are re- quired to make estimated tax payments because they have income that is not subject to withholding and/or from which not enough tax is withheld. Of these taxpayers, millions are pen- alized for not making adequate and/or timely payments. The estimated tax penalty is the largest civil penalty in terms of dollars and second largest in terms of numbers that IRS assesses. In fiscal year 1979, approximately 8.5 million tax- payers paid estimated tax, and about 3.5 million of these tax- payers paid related penalties amounting to over $212 million. The estimated tax forms and instructions provided by the Service need to be simplified so that taxpayers can more easily understand their estimated tax responsibilities and the conse- quences of noncompliance. The Service has made some recent improvements that should help, but other improvements are both necessary and possible. In this regard, the Service, in re- sponse to the Revenue Act of 1978 and our previous report, l/ l/Further Simplification of Income Tax Forms and Instructions Is Needed and Possible, (GGD-78-74, July 5, 1978). /Iz 7. -7 (268070)

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