Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration
Office of Audit
CURRENT PRACTICES ARE PREVENTING A
REDUCTION IN THE
Issued on May 14, 2010
Highlights
Highlights of
Report Number: 2010-40-055 to the
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner for Wage and Investment Division.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mails approximately 200 million notices (including letters) to
individual and business taxpayers and their representatives each year. However,
millions of pieces of mail are returned undeliverable to the IRS for various
reasons. When mail is undeliverable, the
amount taxpayers owe can grow as interest and penalties multiply, and liquid
assets such as bank accounts may eventually be levied to pay the debt owed for
taxes, penalties, and interest.
WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT
The objective of the audit was to determine whether the IRS
can reduce the volume of undeliverable mail.
The IRS mails millions of pieces of mail to taxpayers, not all of which
is delivered.
WHAT
TIGTA FOUND
During Fiscal Year 2009,
approximately 19.3 million pieces of mail were returned to the IRS at an
estimated cost of $57.9 million. From
a random sample of 331 notices and letters returned to the IRS, 239 (72
percent) pieces could not be delivered to the addresses provided.
The IRS allows
taxpayers to submit a change of address online only when inquiring about a
refund that was not received. Additionally,
the IRS allows address changes over the telephone only under certain
circumstances.
The IRS
continues to limit the use of address hygiene software
to a small number of systems and restrict its functionality to make systemic
changes when errors are identified.
Moreover, analyses of the Master File identified 2.1 million
taxpayers with international addresses who are at risk of not receiving
correspondence from the IRS because many international addresses do not fit
into IRS systems’ formats. In addition, the use of a universal indicator
for taxpayer accounts with a bad address could trigger the suspension of all
nonstatutory notices.
The full service Intelligent Mail barcode is the next
generation of United States Postal Service barcode technology used to sort and
track letters. This could save the IRS
approximately $600,000 annually in postage.
The IRS leases access to the United States Postal Service
National Change of Address database to update the Master File with the most
current mailing addresses for taxpayers.
However, the Master File was updated for only about 20 percent of the
address changes submitted. Finally, the
IRS lacks a standardized method for processing undeliverable mail.
WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED
TIGTA recommended that the Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, revise guidelines to allow all taxpayers to change their address by telephone and on any notices requiring a response or a payment voucher. Address hygiene software should be on any address system to ensure all outgoing correspondence has an accurate and complete address. Also, procedures should be developed to place an indicator on taxpayer accounts with a bad address and suspend the issuance of nonstatutory notices. Finally, the Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should develop standardized procedures for processing undeliverable mail for all IRS functional offices.
IRS management
agreed with all of our recommendations.
Management revised Revenue Procedure 2001-18 to allow address changes
based on taxpayer oral notification during telephone contacts. The IRS redesigned notices for taxpayers to
communicate new address information. It plans
to integrate address hygiene software on identified affected systems to ensure
all outgoing correspondence have accurate and complete addresses. Further, management requested a new indicator
to identify bad addresses and suppress the generation of notices when
appropriate. The IRS also plans to
conduct a comprehensive study of the benefits of Intelligent Mail
barcodes. Finally, it standardized procedures
for undeliverable mail in one functional office and plans to conduct a feasibility study on developing standardized
procedures for processing undeliverable mail for all IRS functional offices.
READ THE
FULL REPORT
To view the report,
including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go to:
http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2010reports/201040055fr.html.
Email Address: inquiries@tigta.treas.gov
Phone Number: 202-622-6500
Web Site:
http://www.tigta.gov