Improvements Looked For In IRS External Leads Program
Participation in the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) External Leads Program is growing, resulting in the receipt of a significantly larger volume of leads about questionable tax refunds, but the agency is not always verifying the leads timely, according to a new report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
The IRS External Leads Program receives leads about questionable tax refunds identified by a variety of partner organizations that include financial institutions, brokerage firms, government and law enforcement agencies, State agencies and tax preparers. The questionable tax refunds include Treasury checks, direct deposits and prepaid debit cards.
The overall objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of the IRS’s External Leads Program in recovering questionable .
According to TIGTA’s report, the IRS is not always verifying leads timely, and verification time frame goals differ significantly based on the lead type. In addition, the IRS’s timely verification goals do not take into consideration the burden on legitimate taxpayers whose refund is being held until the verification is completed.
TIGTA recommended, and the agency agreed, that the IRS should establish more consistent time frames to verify leads; communicate these verification time frames to external partners; develop a process to ensure that leads are verified timely; consolidate the current lead inventory tracking systems into a single tracking system; and ensure that key information is captured as to how each lead is resolved.
Source: tax-news
