The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that reports to the Congress and is often referred to as the congressional watchdog. The organization is headed up by the Comptroller General of the United States and looks at how the federal government has spent the taxpayers’ money. The GAO has recently released a report showing that there are further opportunities to ensure greater efficiency.
The GAO points out in the report that financing the US government depends mainly on the IRS’s ability to efficiently apply the tax law and that each tax filing season is a difficult undertaking involving the processing of most tax return. The IRS provides services to millions of taxpayers, including telephone assistance, correspondence and online guidance.
The IRS funding and staff numbers have been reduced by 8 percent since 2010, even though there has been a steady increase in the workload. IRS funding cuts have resulted in a reduction of more than 8,000 employees in three years. The GAO does however point out that additional funding may not be the only answer to the problem of increasing the efficiency of IRS activities. More improvements could be made in other ways such as more streamlined procedures and education of taxpayers.
