United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-06-18 monographic deposited born digital 30 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-535 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535 P0b002ee18038bb0e f:d01535 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535 GAO-01-535 Performance measures Reporting requirements Tax returns Voluntary compliance Customs Cargo Compliance Measurement Program Other Written Product A01074 The U.S. tax system is based on voluntary reporting--taxpayers self-report their liabilities on the returns they file. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reviews all tax returns after they are filed to ensure compliance with tax laws governing this voluntary system. In spite of IRS' efforts to enforce compliance, each year billions of dollars in taxes owed are not voluntarily reported and paid, which could result in reduced revenue to fund federal programs, higher tax rates, or both. There are three types of voluntary compliance measures: filing compliance, which measures the percent of taxpayers who file returns in a timely manner; payment compliance, which measures the percent of tax payments that are paid in a timely manner; and reporting compliance, which measures the percent of actual tax liability that is reported accurately on returns. This report reviews the status of IRS' plans to measure voluntary reporting compliance as well as six other federal programs which currently measure voluntary compliance. GAO found that IRS has taken steps to develop an approach for measuring voluntary compliance. It has established objectives and guiding principles for developing this measure as well as developed database software to collect and analyze data. As of March 2001, IRS' preliminary draft plan included four alternatives related to measuring voluntary reporting compliance. Regarding the six programs reviewed, GAO found that each of the six programs measure compliance by gathering different types and amounts of information from a random sample of clients. Sample sizes range from about 1,400 to over 500,000 annually. In each program except for one, clients are randomly selected and interviewed in person. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535.pdf GAO-01-535 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-535 Other Written Product GAO-01-535; Tax Administration: Status of IRS' Efforts to Develop Measures of Voluntary Compliance; Performance measures Reporting requirements Tax returns Voluntary compliance Customs Cargo Compliance Measurement Program