Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration
Office of Audit
INTERIM RESULTS OF THE 2009 FILING
SEASON
Issued on March 30, 2009
Highlights
Highlights of
Report Number: 2009-40-058 to the
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner for the Wage and Investment
Division.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
The
filing season is critical for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because it is
the time when most individuals file their income tax returns and contact the
IRS if they have questions about specific tax laws or filing procedures. During the 2009 Filing Season, the IRS
expects to receive nearly 140 million individual income tax returns.
WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT
This report presents selected
information related to the IRS 2009 Filing Season results as of either March 6 or
March 7, 2009. TIGTA has a number of
ongoing audits related to the 2009 Filing Season. Individual audit reports will be issued at
the completion of each audit.
One
of the challenges the IRS confronts each year in processing tax returns is the
implementation of new tax law changes.
Before the filing season begins, the IRS must identify new tax law and
administrative changes and, when possible, revise the various tax forms,
instructions, and publications. It must
also reprogram its computer systems to ensure tax returns are accurately
processed. The 2009 Filing Season
presented additional challenges for the IRS due to the enactment of two
significant tax laws that provide a new refundable First-Time Homebuyer Credit
and a massive bailout and tax relief package that included 116 different tax
provisions. In addition, much like last
filing season, the IRS is responsible for processing tax returns that include
the Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC).
WHAT
TIGTA FOUND
TIGTA found
no significant problems with the IRS’ processing of individual income tax
returns during the 2009 Filing Season through March 6, 2009. While we have some concerns that are
discussed in the report, in general, the IRS accurately processed the returns
it had received and issued refunds in a timely manner.
As of March
6, 2009, the IRS had received approximately 63.9 million tax returns—51.8
million electronically filed (e-filed)
and 12.1 million paper filed. E-filing has increased by 6.1 percent
compared to the same period in 2008; the largest part of this increase is
taxpayers e-filing from their home
computers which increased by 19.9 percent.
In
addition, a total of 11.4 million tax returns
included a claim for the RRC. Claims for
the RRC totaled approximately $7.1 billion and our analysis shows that the IRS
correctly computed the RRC on 99.6 percent of tax returns processed. However, taxpayers are having difficulty in
determining whether they qualify to receive the RRC and, if they qualify, the
amount of their credit. As of March 6, 2009, the IRS had identified approximately 5.4
million tax returns with RRC errors.
Finally, as
of March 6, 2009, the IRS had identified 67,780 returns with $421,487,654 being
claimed in fraudulent refunds and was able to prevent the issuance of
$376,987,935 of the fraudulent refunds being claimed.
Taxpayers have several
options to choose from when they need assistance from the IRS, including
telephone assistance through the toll-free telephone lines, face‑to-face
assistance at the
o
As of February 28, 2009, the Taxpayer Assistance Centers had served 2.4 million
taxpayers since October 1, 2008—1.3 million taxpayers for the 2009 Filing
Season.
o
Some performance
measures and service indicators for the Toll-Free Telephone Program are
currently lower than in the 2008 Filing Season because of increased demand
related to prior year Adjusted Gross Income and the RRC.
o
As
of March 7, 2009, we had 22 tax returns prepared at Volunteer Program sites with
a 64 percent accuracy rate, which is approaching the 69 percent accuracy rate
we reported for the 2008 Filing Season.
o
As
of the week ending March 7, 2009, the IRS had reported a 28.7 percent increase
in the number of visits to IRS.gov (the IRS public Internet site) over the same
period in the prior filing season.
WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED
This report was prepared to provide
interim information only. Therefore, we
made no recommendations in the report.
READ THE
FULL REPORT
To view the report,
including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go to:
http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2009reports/200940058fr.html.
Email Address: inquiries@tigta.treas.gov
Phone Number: 202-622-6500
Web Site:
http://www.tigta.gov