Tax Administration: IRS Can Help Taxpayers Reduce the Need for Tax Abatements Metadata

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Title

  • Main Title Tax Administration: IRS Can Help Taxpayers Reduce the Need for Tax Abatements

Creator

  • Author: United States. General Accounting Office.
    Creator Type: Organization

Publisher

  • Name: United States. General Accounting Office.
    Place of Publication: Washington D.C.

Date

  • Creation: 2001-03-30

Language

  • English

Description

  • Content Description: A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "About one million taxpayers per year, as well as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), incur costs to abate tax assessments created due to tax exemption errors. Avoiding the errors, or correcting them earlier, could reduce the burden on taxpayers of complying with tax laws. IRS has taken one step intended to help taxpayers avoid these errors--revising instructions for claiming exemptions. In another step, aimed at correcting some exemption errors that continue to be made, IRS decided to check name and social security number errors for spousal exemption claims during returns processing. In addition, IRS is considering implementing earlier--during returns processing--checks for dependent exemption errors and taxpayer contacts if the checks do not correct exemption errors. Doing such checks and contacts earlier is worthwhile. Although the cost savings to IRS are unknown, many taxpayers would benefit. However, IRS did not provide GAO with any details or documentation about how or when decisions would be made. Little is known about how to reduce nonexemption errors that lead to assessments being abated. Because more than one million taxpayers were burdened by such assessments, research to reduce the errors is worth considering."

Subject

  • Library of Congress Subject Headings: Government accountability -- United States.
  • Keyword: tax policy and administration
  • Keyword: tax administration
  • Keyword: letter report

Coverage

  • Place Name: United States

Collection

  • Name: Government Accountability Office Reports
    Code: GAORT

Institution

  • Name: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
    Code: UNTGD

Rights

  • Rights License: pd

Resource Type

  • Report

Format

  • Text

Identifier

  • Report No.: GAO-01-328
  • Accession or Local Control No: 231314
  • URL: http://gao.gov/products/GAO-01-328
  • Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metadc291367
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