Tax Whistleblowers: Incomplete Data Hinders IRS's Ability to Manage Claim Processing Time and Enhance External Communication (GAO-11-683)

GAO-11-683, Tax Whistleblowers: Incomplete Data Hinders IRS's Ability to Manage Claim Processing Time (Aug 2011, 39 pp.): highlights; background (1867 and 1996 laws, 2006 Act; tax gap $345 billion for 2001 - out of scope); Table 1 features of original and expanded programmes; Table 2 claim process steps; staff of 20 (May 2011); 28% withholding policy; other federal and state programmes; Table 3 status of expanded-programme claims by year of receipt FY2007-FY2011 (whistleblowers, claims, rejected, in process by step); 66% of FY2007-08 claims still open, under 7% of those in final steps, 447 FY2010 claims 200+ days in initial review; division shares of assigned claims (footnote 13); average examination cycle times for all IRS exams (211 and 322 days - not whistleblower-specific, out of scope); Table 4 rejections by step; time targets (60, 240, 90 days); section 6103 limits; more than 20 Tax Court appeals of denials; NOL and withholding issues; Table 5 options; recommendations; IRS comment letter (image pages, OCR read: no numbers). Already in the data: Table 3 totals, rejected and in-process rows, 66%, 1,300 submissions. Added: Table 3 whistleblowers and step rows (54 cells), Table 4 (6 rows), division shares (4), other text figures (5), 11 rules, 1 event; new indicator award_appeals_filed. Checks: all Table 3 columns and Table 4 add up.