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

GGD-95-199R 1 (1995-07-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackwl0001 and id is 1 raw text is: -IA United States General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 General Government Division B-261927 July 19, 1995 The Honorable Margaret Milner Richardson Commissioner of Internal Revenue Dear Mrs. Richardson: In December 1994, we issued a report on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) progress in planning the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program (TCMP) for tax year 1994 returns.' In that report, we emphasized the importance of accurately showing income adjustments and consistently using causal codes, which IRS plans to use in the 1994 TCMP to identify reasons for noncompliance. We have just completed an analysis of a sample of 393 tax year 1988 TCMP returns and associated workpapers where IRS auditors made adjustments to the Other Income line of the Form 1040, Individual Income Tax Return.2 Our analysis was done to determine whether auditors made proper adjustments to this line in accordance with IRS instructions and whether the causal codes can be used to clearly explain the reasons for noncompliance. This letter is to bring to your attention some procedural problems we observed as we did our analysis. SUMMARY OF RESULTS We noted that IRS auditors sometimes made adjustments to the Other Income line which either should have been made to other lines on the return or were inconsistent with TCMP audit instructions. In doing our analysis, we also attempted to apply the causal codes IRS plans to use in the 1994 TCMP to the adjustments auditors made to our sample cases. We found that the causal code definitions were difficult to use because they lacked specificity and IRS had not developed guidance or criteria on when each type of causal code should be applied. 'Tax Compliance: Status of the Tax Year 1994 Compliance Measurement Program (GAO/GGD-95-39, Dec. 30, 1994). 2Enclosure I discusses how we selected our sample. GAO/GGD-95-199R Other Income Reporting

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