U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Breadcrumb

High-Income Nonfilers Owing Billions of Dollars Are Not Being Worked by the Internal Revenue Service.

Report Information

Date Issued
Report Number
2020-30-015
Report Type
Audit
Joint Report
Yes
Participating OIG
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
Agency Wide
Yes (agency-wide)
Questioned Costs
$0
Funds for Better Use
$0

Recommendations

The Commissioner, SB/SE Division, should designate a senior management official with appropriate resources and specific nonfiler duties to address nonfiling, including high-income taxpayers and repeat nonfilers.

The Commissioner, SB/SE Division, should consider a reallocation of resources in the Collection and Examination functions (along with support from Criminal Investigation) to ensure that most, if not all, high-income nonfilers are subject to enforcement action, such as creating a team that specifically focuses on high-income nonfiler cases, ensuring that the appropriate skill set is applied and these cases will continue to be worked.
Recommendation rejected by IRS

The Commissioner, SB/SE Division, should prioritize nonfilers so that the IMF CCNIP is not paused in the future and develop a nonfiler strategy that ensures that delinquency notices are issued to all high-income nonfilers so, at a minimum, these cases will be entered into the inventory stream.

The Commissioner, SB/SE Division, should analyze the population of TY 2014 through 2016 high-income nonfilers and issue notices to those high-income nonfilers identified during this review as never being placed into TDI inventory or closed out of TDI inventory without being worked. In addition, consider working the top 100 nonfiler cases identified from TYs 2014 through 2016 that have not been resolved by referring the cases to the Collection function, the Examination function, or Criminal Investigation special agents for enforcement action.
Recommendation rejected by IRS

The Commissioner, SB/SE Division, should reconsider working multiple tax year cases for all high-income nonfilers.
Recommendation rejected by IRS