Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration
Office of Audit
THE IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION OF
SYSTEMIC ADVOCACY PROJECTS DESIGNED TO RESOLVE BROAD-BASED TAXPAYER PROBLEMS
CAN BE IMPROVED
Issued on June 27, 2011
Highlights
Highlights of
Report Number: 2011-10-052 to the Internal
Revenue Service National Taxpayer Advocate.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
To
help meet its mission, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is required to
identify areas in which groups of taxpayers are experiencing problems with the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The TAS
conducts Advocacy Projects to identify solutions for systemic issues affecting
multiple taxpayers. However, TIGTA
determined the TAS does not have an effective process to identify systemic
problems that affect taxpayers.
Improving the screening process will assist TAS management in
identifying and resolving broad-based taxpayer problems, which should prevent
or reduce similar problems in the future.
WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT
This audit was initiated to determine whether
the TAS has an adequate process for identifying and prioritizing Advocacy
Projects and whether business measures have been established for the Systemic
Advocacy Program. Because
the TAS has limited resources, it needs to have effective processes to identify
systemic problems. Also, the TAS needs
to be able to measure the impact its Projects have on taxpayers.
WHAT
TIGTA FOUND
The TAS
can improve the process used for identifying Systemic Advocacy Projects. To identify potential
systemic issues that could be reviewed through Systemic Advocacy Projects, TAS
management primarily relies on IRS employees and its external stakeholders to submit
issues through the Internet. However,
TIGTA found that research performed during the screening process to identify
issues for Advocacy Projects could be improved to better identify systemic
problems affecting multiple taxpayers.
Specifically, TIGTA sampled 25 of the 134 Projects closed in Fiscal Year
2009 and determined that documentation for 13 Projects did not support that the
issue was a systemic problem. In
addition, TIGTA
believes TAS management should use existing information captured in its Case
Advocacy Program, which addresses problems faced by individual or business
taxpayers, to identify issues warranting further review in a Systemic Advocacy
Project. Further, TIGTA believes current
performance measures do not provide management with enough information to
assess whether its Projects positively benefited tax administration.
WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED
TIGTA recommended that
the National Taxpayer Advocate require TAS personnel to perform and document
sufficient research to support a potential systemic issue exists before
initiating a Project, review Case
Advocacy Program data to identify systemic issues for Projects, and develop
additional performance measures that capture the Systemic Advocacy Projects’
effectiveness in identifying and resolving systemic issues affecting taxpayers.
Management stated they have already
begun implementing significant changes to the issue review process and are in
the process of revising their measures for systemic problem resolution work. Management disagreed with our recommendation to
review program data to identify systemic issues for Advocacy Projects, stating
they already use this information for this purpose. However, TAS personnel informed us during our
interviews that they do not analyze Case Advocacy Program data to consider
whether Projects should be initiated.
Instead, they rely on IRS employees and external stakeholders to
identify and submit potential systemic issues. TIGTA believes the TAS should formalize and
document a process to periodically analyze Case Advocacy Program data to
identify potential issues that could be addressed in Systemic Advocacy
Projects.
READ THE
FULL REPORT
To view the report,
including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go
to:
Email Address: TIGTACommunications@tigta.treas.gov
Phone
Number: 202-622-6500
Web Site: http://www.tigta.gov