The Service prepares for the filing season by developing a Filing Season Readiness Action Plan and by completing the action items in the plan. Legislative Affairs coordinates the IRS-wide implementation of legislation changes to the Internal Revenue code. This plan addresses actions necessary to complete the publication of guidance for the public, changes to forms and publications, and changes to processing or compliance procedures. The objective for this review was to determine whether the Service’s process in implementing tax law changes for the 1999 filing season was effective to accurately process returns to the Business Master File (BMF) and to provide taxpayers with sufficient information to comply with the new tax laws.

Our review focused on Taxpayer Relief Act 1997 (TRA) and IRS Restructuring and Reform Act 1998 (RRA) tax law changes that were highly significant in terms of revenue, impact on taxpayers, sensitivity, or complexity for BMF returns. We identified and reviewed the readiness process for seven key BMF tax law changes that affect the 1999 filing season.

During the BMF readiness process for the 1999 filing season the Service developed an action plan and conducted steering committee meetings to ensure the responsible functions completed the action items. The readiness process reduced the risk of having an unsuccessful BMF filing season by:

• Identifying tax law changes affecting BMF processing and the action needed to implement the changes into the processing system.
• Ensuring that tax forms and instructions were adequately revised to help taxpayers in complying with the new tax laws.
• Ensuring that Requests for Information Services (RIS) to change computer programs were accurate and complete.