Priority Open Recommendations: Internal Revenue Service

This letter to IRS outlines 24 open recommendations that it should prioritize. For example, IRS could improve taxpayer services by modernizing its refund status-tracking tool, setting specific performance goals for the taxpayer experience, and giving taxpayers estimated time frames for when they can expect replies to backlogged correspondence.

In June 2022, GAO identified 25 priority recommendations for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Since then, IRS has implemented four of those recommendations by, among other things, reporting improper payment estimates for the Premium Tax Credit, and migrating 30 applications onto its new online taxpayer authentication platform. GAO closed one other recommendation for IRS to revise its estimated time frames for resolving the backlog of work from the 2020 tax filing season as not implemented because IRS reported it has cleared this inventory.

In July 2023, GAO identified four additional priority recommendations for IRS, bringing the total number to 24. These recommendations involve the following areas:

• Ensuring cybersecurity
• Improving taxpayer services
• Reducing tax fraud and improper payments
• Enhancing information reporting
• Improving audit effectiveness
• Enhancing strategic human capital management

See more here.

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