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GAO-01-301R 1 (2001-04-06)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptamzn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~G A 0. Accountability * Integrity* Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 April 6, 2001 The Honorable William M. Thomas Chairman The Honorable Charles E. Grassley Vice Chairman Joint Committee on Taxation Subject: Information Related to the Scope and Complexity of the Federal Tax System The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 requires the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to report to Congress on the overall state of the federal tax system and on proposals to simplify it. The requirement for this study stems from a recommendation made in 1997 by the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS. The Commission concluded that the tax law should be simplified. The Commission reported a connection between the complexity of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and the difficulty of administering it and taxpayer frustration with the tax system. It reported that such complexity can lead to inadvertent noncompliance, increased costs to taxpayers, and complicated tax collection. In a June 29, 2000 letter, we were asked to help the staff of the JCT in its study of the overall state of the federal tax system and proposals to simplify it. As agreed with the JCT, we obtained information on 1. the scope and size of the IRC, the number of congressionally-mandated studies of the tax system, and the amount of tax guidance and regulations issued by IRS; 2. the number and scope of IRS forms, schedules, publications, and worksheets; 3. the number of tax returns filed and people claimed on these returns, by various characteristics for selected years; 4. the amount of assistance provided to taxpayers by IRS, return preparers, and computerized software for selected years; 5. the number and types of errors found by IRS when processing or auditing tax returns, by various return characteristics for selected years; 6. the number and types of taxpayer disputes with IRS in the form of appeals and litigation in selected years; and finally, 7. statistics associated with specific tax issues in the IRC. These 7 areas relate to a list of 27 questions/topics that JCT staff provided us. During several subsequent meetings, JCT staff adjusted and clarified some of the questions and asked that we provide the answers in several installments by September 30, 2000, to help them draft the Committee's required report. We are issuing this letter to compile the information we had provided and to make it available to other interested parties. The questions, together with the relevant information that we obtained, form the substance of this correspondence and are included in the enclosures. GAO-01-301R Information on Federal Tax System

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