Improvements Are Needed to Correct Continued Deficiencies in the Processing of Taxpayer Referrals of Suspected Tax Fraud

The Commissioner, W&I Division, should ensure that IRS.gov is updated with the keywords that taxpayers use when seeking help on how to report tax law violations and fraud. All 10 keywords should generate the link, "How Do You Report Suspected Tax Fraud Activity?"

The Commissioner, W&I Division, should ensure that written internal guidelines are developed to accurately account for and track Forms 3949-A from receipt to forwarding to a functional area or to retention. Guidelines should also ensure adequate separation of duties for key Forms 3949-A inventory management processes.

The Commissioner, W&I Division, should ensure that written guidance is issued to the ICT unit emphasizing the requirement for ICT clerks to review both Sections B3 and B5 on Forms 3949-A and follow Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) procedures to prevent valid information referrals from being sent to retention.

The Commissioner, W&I Division, should ensure that procedures are developed to timely send all referrals prepared in a language other than English to Linguistic Services for translation and screening.

The Commissioner, W&I Division, should develop procedures to track misrouted information referrals and request that the IRS functional areas return all misrouted information referrals to the ICT. The procedures should include documenting the reason an information referral was misrouted and analyzing trends to improve current screening and routing procedures.