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

GAO-23-106470 1 (2023-07-31)

handle is hein.gao/gaopag0001 and id is 1 raw text is: eO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States July 31, 2023 The Honorable Danny Werfel Commissioner Internal Revenue Service Priority Open Recommendations: Internal Revenue Service Dear Mr. Werfel: The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on the overall status of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call your personal attention to areas where open or partially implemented recommendations should be given high priority.1 In November 2022, we reported that, on a government-wide basis, 77 percent of our recommendations made 4 years ago were implemented.2 IRS's recommendation implementation rate was 68 percent. As of July 2023, IRS had 253 recommendations that were either open or partially implemented. Fully implementing these recommendations could significantly improve IRS's operations. In August 2022, the President signed into law the statute commonly known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that provides IRS with nearly $80 billion in supplemental funding over the next decade.3 Upon enactment, the Secretary of the Treasury directed IRS to develop a plan for these funds, and in April 2023, IRS delivered its Inflation Reduction Act Strategic Operating Plan. In refining and carrying out its plan, IRS should work toward implementing our open recommendations, particularly those we highlight in this letter as being of the highest priority. Since our June 2022 letter, IRS has implemented four of 25 open priority recommendations.4 As of August 2022, IRS demonstrated that it had taken multiple steps to develop a fraud risk profile for identity theft refund fraud on business-related tax returns, as we 1Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because they may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2022, GAO-23-900398 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 15, 2022). 3An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to Title I of S.Con. Res. 14, Pub. L. No. 117-169, § 10301, 136 Stat. 1831-1833 (2022). The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 rescinded over $1.389 billion of amounts appropriated for the IRS by Public Law 117-169. Pub L. No. 118-5, § 251, 137 Stat. 10, 30 (2023). 4We also closed one recommendation for IRS to revise its estimates for resolving the backlog of tax returns and taxpayer correspondence received during the 2020 tax filing season as not implemented. We did this because IRS reported in March 2023 that it had processed all returns received in 2020, bringing this inventory to zero. See GAO, Tax Filing: Actions Needed to Address Processing Delays and Risks to the 2021 Filing Season, GAO-21-251 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 1, 2021).

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