**GAO-09-45**                      Published: Nov 07, 2008. Publicly Released: Dec 08, 2008.                  

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## Highlights

The State Reverse File Match Initiative (SRFMI) is one of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) data-sharing strategies to reduce the estimated $345 billion gross federal tax gap. SRFMI matches federal and state taxpayer data to identify noncompliant taxpayers--individuals and businesses who do not file tax returns or do not report all of their income. IRS's document-matching program has proven to be a highly cost-effective way of identifying underreported income, thereby bringing in billions of dollars of tax revenue while boosting voluntary compliance. Based on concerns about whether IRS is fully using data from state and local governments to reduce the tax gap, GAO was asked to assess IRS's plan for evaluating the effectiveness of the SRFMI pilot taxpayer data-sharing program. To address these objectives, GAO consulted social science and evaluation literature, published GAO guidance, and IRS guidance; reviewed and analyzed SRFMI planning and evaluation documents; and interviewed IRS officials about IRS's plans to evaluate SRFMI.

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## Topics

Tax Policy and Administration

Data collectionData integrityDocumentationEvaluation criteriaFederal taxesstate relationsIncome taxesInternal controlsPerformance managementPerformance measuresPersonal income taxesProgram evaluationProgram managementStandards evaluationStrategic planningTax administrationTax administration systemsTax nonpaymentTax returnsTax violationsTaxesVoluntary complianceData sharingTax gap