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Treasury Inspector General Report on Accuracy of IRS Responses to ACA Exchange Requests for Income and Family Size Verification Information and Maximum Advance Premium Tax Credit Calculation (PDF)

"Our review of the IRS's response to [more than 100,000] requests received by the IRS between October 1 and October 4, 2013, showed that the IRS ... provided accurate responses for ... 99.97 percent [of the] requests.... In addition, TIGTA reviewed the IRS's response to [more than 120,000 Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC)] requests received between October 1 and October 14, 2013. This review showed that the IRS, based on information furnished by the Exchange, accurately calculated the maximum monthly APTC for [each one of those] requests."

Treasury Inspector General Report: Additional Measures Needed to Provide Greater Assurance That Tax Information Provided to Health Exchanges Is Protected (PDF)

"This audit was initiated to determine whether IRS Office of Safeguards has implemented sufficient policies and procedures to ensure that ACA Exchanges are adequately protecting [Federal Tax Information (FTI)] received from the IRS.... The current documentation on which the Office of Safeguards bases its approval decision for release of FTI does not provide sufficient evidence that required controls have been implemented. TIGTA also found deficiencies in procedures related to obtaining signed system security authorizations and ensuring that on-site reviews of agencies that have deployed new systems occur in a timely manner." [Report is dated Sept. 16, 2014; released Oct. 23, 2014.]

Treasury Inspector General Report: Improvements Are Needed to Strengthen Security and Testing Controls for the ACA Information Returns Project (PDF)

44 pages. "The ACA Information Returns (AIR) Release 1 Project is an information technology project managed under the IRS's ACA Program.... The overall objective of this review was to determine if the IRS is adequately mitigating systems development risks ... TIGTA evaluated the IRS's key management controls and processes for risk management, requirements and change management, testing, security, and fraud detection ... [I]mprovements are needed to ensure the long-term success of the AIR system by adherence to systems development controls for security and testing activities in accordance with applicable guidance.... These security control weaknesses could impact the AIR system's ability to reliably process the electronic form reports and to accurately determine the applicable fees." [Dated Sept. 29, 2014; published online Dec. 1, 2014]

Statistical Trends in Retirement Plans (PDF)

36 pages. Excerpt: Retirees may not have enough income from retirement plans alone to cover their financial needs during retirement, according to a report publicly released [Sept. 15] by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

TIGTA Report: Improvements Have Been Made, but Controls Need to Be Strengthened to Detect Improper Self-Employed Retirement Deductions (PDF)

38 pages. "TIGTA made six recommendations, including adding Schedule SE to processing controls, enhancing controls to determine the reasonableness of self-employed retirement deductions, assessing the need for additional third-party data to verify deductions, and changing Form 5498 instructions for consistency. In their response, IRS management agreed with two recommendations and plans to take corrective actions. However, the IRS did not agree to enhancing controls to determine the reasonableness of self-employed retirement deductions, assessing the need for additional third-party data, and changing the Form 5498 instructions. TIGTA believes these actions would improve tax compliance and potentially increase revenue by $890 million over the next five years."

ACA: Controls Over Financial Accounting for the Premium Tax Credit Should Be Improved (PDF)

22 pages. "TIGTA found errors in the IRS financial accounting and reporting of PTC-related fund outlays.... The errors we identified were due to a programming miscalculation. The miscalculation was not caught due to insufficient testing of the financial system programming developed to account for the impact of the reconciliation of PTC fund outlays (disbursements). Due to this programming error, the IRS understated the amount of PTC disbursements and overstated the balance in the IRS PTC account by $447 million. Further, the error TIGTA identified in the financial accounting records, if left uncorrected, would have resulted in a misstatement of the Fiscal Year 2015 IRS financial statements refundable credits in excess of tax liability account."

TIGTA Audit Report 2021-16-044: Taxpayers Were Notified About the CARES Act Retirement Plan Provisions But Additional Actions Could Be Taken to Identify Potential Noncompliance (PDF)

21 pages. "Although the Section 2202 Compliance Plan assessed the effect on examination activities and outlined the steps necessary to encourage and enforce taxpayer compliance, it could be improved.... TIGTA recommended that the Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division, ensure that management has sufficient information available to assess compliance with Section 2202 of the CARES Act and consider creating a Lead Sheet to assist examiners when reviewing cases for potential noncompliance. In their response, IRS management disagreed with both recommendations."

Review of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division: Fiscal Year 2019 Statistical Trends (PDF)

50 pages. "The number of determinations requests received decreased by 65 percent over FYs 2015 through 2019. ... [T]he primary reason for this drop was a change in the determination letter submission process. ... While Forms 5500 and 5500-EZ filings declined from FY 2015 through FY 2019, Form 5500-SF filings for small employee benefit plans have increased and made up over 60 percent of total filings each year.... Although the number of EP function examination closures decreased from 8,705 closures in FY 2015 to 5,848 in FY 2019 (nearly 33 percent), the no change rate decreased by 17 percent over the same period. This indicates that although the EP function is completing fewer examinations, the cases selected are yielding issues worthy of review." [Employee benefits discussion begins on page 9.]