Tax Filing, 2011: Processing Gains, but Taxpayer Assistance Could Be Enhanced by More Self-Service Tools

摘要

The tax filing season is an enormous undertaking in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) processes millions of tax returns, issues billions of dollars in refunds to taxpayers, corrects taxpayers errors, and provides service to millions of taxpayers through telephones, website, and face-to-face assistance. Among other things, GAO was asked to assess (1) IRS's performance processing returns and issuing refunds, and providing telephone assistance, and (2) IRS's plans to expand self-service options on its website. To conduct the analyses, GAO obtained and compared data from 2007 through 2011, reviewed IRS documents, interviewed IRS officials, observed IRS operations, and interviewed tax-industry experts, including from tax preparation firms.