United States General Accounting Office GAO February 2000 Report to the Secretary of the Treasury_part6 docx

Management Discussion and Analysis Page 54 GAO/AIMD-00-76 IRS’ Fiscal Year 1999 Financial Statements INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE Management Discussion and Analysis For the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 1999 PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS Submission Processing (continued) the time needed to process the affected returns and issue the refunds. Excluding the performance of that one center, the FY 1999 performance level was 85%. In the General Accounting Office (GAO) report “IRS’ 1999 Tax Filing Season, “GAO recommended that Submission Processing analyze the results of the refund timeliness tests to determine, among other things, why about 15 percent of the refunds took longer than 40 days to issue and what the test results showed for returns that were filed error- free. The Commissioner, in his response letter, said that the IRS is “in the process of obtaining an extract from which we can perform an initial analysis. We will be able to tell which returns had a math error, but not those on which we corresponded or on which there was an unpostable condition. Therefore, we cannot, based on the extracted data alone, identify whether a return was truly error-free. Depending on our findings in the initial analysis, we may make a decision to pull the returns and conduct a more extensive analysis. If we do further analysis, we will be able to determine the results for returns filed error-free. The results of the initial analysis will be completed on or before February 1, 2000.” We have included actions to address this recommendation under the FY 2001 and FY 2000 Service to All Taxpayers goal narratives in the FY 2001 Congressional Justification of the President’s Budget. The IRS Internet site “The Daily Digital” continues to be extremely popular. During the January through April 1999 filing season, the site received more than 767 million “hits” (information accesses) compared to over 300 million for the same period in 1998. There were 57 million downloaded files in the January to April 1999 period, an increase of 100% over the 28 million downloaded during the same period of 1998. In FY 1999, the following applications were provided through the enhanced IRS Internet site to improve customer service. On-line Installment Agreement – Delinquent taxpayers meeting IRS criteria are allowed to use the web to initiate a payment agreement on overdue taxes. This application was designed to complete the agreement with secure taxpayer data on the taxpayer’s personal computer, not on the IRS Internet site. The taxpayer then has the option of printing, signing and faxing or mailing the completed agreement to the IRS at the address provided. Taxpayers still have the option of coming to an office to make agreements but this online option will significantly reduce the walk-in taxpayer service traffic and telephone time devoted to installment agreements. Expanded On-Line Customer Service - Expanded use of online customer service technologies, such as the “Mailman” application that allows taxpayers to submit questions to Customer Service Representatives on the Internet site and receive This is trial version www.adultpdf.com . (continued) the time needed to process the affected returns and issue the refunds. Excluding the performance of that one center, the FY 1999 performance level was 85%. In the General Accounting Office (GAO) . mailing the completed agreement to the IRS at the address provided. Taxpayers still have the option of coming to an office to make agreements but this online option will significantly reduce the. recommendation under the FY 2001 and FY 2000 Service to All Taxpayers goal narratives in the FY 2001 Congressional Justification of the President’s Budget. The IRS Internet site The Daily Digital” continues to