The IRS needs to improve its oversight of revenue officers to ensure case actions are completed as quickly as possible, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said.
It said a sample of cases closed by revenue officers in the Small Business/Self-Employed Division Collection Field function showed wide variation in the time it took to review cases prior to contacting taxpayers or for taking follow-up actions in 44 percent of cases requiring action.
ROs did not make contact within specified timeframes in 26 of 134 sampled cases in which initial contact was required, in 82 of the cases ROs were unsuccessful with making initial contact with taxpayers, and ROs did not take timely follow-up actions in 55 cases requiring action, according to TIGTA.
It said IRS management controls designed to ensure that ROs take timely case actions were not completely effective, and recommended that management assess the impact of a recent decision to allow for more time to make initial contact with taxpayers.
Management agreed with most of TIGTA’s recommendations and plans corrective action – though it did not agree that additional controls are necessary to ensure that ROs perform analysis prior to making initial contact with taxpayers.