Tax Administration: Electronic Filing Fraud (Testimony, 02/10/94,
GAO/T-GGD-94-89).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) identified nearly 26,000 fraudulent
electronic income tax returns during the first 10 months of 1993--a
105-percent increase over 1992 levels.  In the long term, it is critical
that IRS thoroughly assess its controls and determine what is needed to
adequately protect the government's revenues.  With a goal of 80 million
electronic returns by 2001, IRS must ensure that fraud control needs,
such as various up-front matching capabilities, are fully identified and
considered in planning its systems modernization program.  IRS also
needs to learn from its electronic filing experience by building
adequate controls into the design of future systems, like Telefile,
which allow taxpayers to file their returns over the telephone, and
ensure that those controls are adequate before nationwide
implementation.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-89
     TITLE:  Tax Administration: Electronic Filing Fraud
      DATE:  02/10/94
   SUBJECT:  Tax refunds
             Fraud
             Tax returns
             Electronic funds transfer
             Electronic forms
             Telecommunications operations
             Tax administration systems
             Information processing operations
             Taxpayers
IDENTIFIER:  FBI National Crime Information Center Project 2000
             IRS TeleFile Program
             IRS Electronic Management System
             NCIC 2000 System
             
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