United States General Accounting Office 

GAO Report to the Chairman and Ranking 

Minority Member, Committee on 

Finance, U.S. Senate 

December 2001 TAX 

ADMINISTRATION 

Interim Report on 

Advance Tax Refunds 

GAO-02-257

Contents


Letter 

Results in Brief


Background


Billions of Dollars in Advance Tax Refunds Sent to Millions of


Taxpayers 

Various Problems Occurred During Implementation of the Advance 

Refund Program 

Agency Comments 

1 

2 

3 

4 

7 

12 

Appendix I Comments From the Internal Revenue Service 

Appendix II Comments From the Financial Management Service 

Tables 

Table 1: Number of Taxpayers and Amount of Advance Tax 

Refunds Each Week Through September 30, 2001 5 

Table 2: Accessibility of IRS’ Telephone Assistance During 

Advance Tax Refund Period 10 

Abbreviations 

DFAS Defense Finance and Accounting Service


FMS Financial Management Service


IRS Internal Revenue Service


SSN Social Security number


TIGTA Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration


Page i GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 

13 

15 
United States General Accounting Office 

Washington, DC 20548 

December 13, 2001


The Honorable Max Baucus


Chairman


Committee on Finance


United States Senate


The Honorable Charles E. Grassley


Ranking Minority Member


Committee on Finance


United States Senate


The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 20011

 directed


the Secretary of the Treasury to issue advance 2001 tax refunds to eligible


individual taxpayers who filed a tax year 2000 return. As a result, the


Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was tasked with identifying taxpayers who


were eligible for an advance tax refund so that checks could be sent to


these taxpayers by December 31, 2001. The Department of the Treasury’s


Financial Management Service (FMS) was to issue the checks on behalf of


IRS, with the first checks to be received during the week of July 23, 2001.


In response to your request for information on IRS’ efforts to implement


this provision of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act


of 2001, this interim report includes information on (1) the number and


dollar amount of advance tax refund checks issued through September 30,


2001, and related information, such as IRS’ costs to administer this


program, and (2) various problems that were encountered during the


program’s implementation. We plan to issue a final report on this program


around the end of March 2002.


To meet our objectives for this interim report, we discussed advance tax


refund procedures with IRS officials and obtained statistics on (1) the


number and dollar value of refunds issued, refunds that were offset due to


federal tax debts, and undeliverable refund notices and checks, and (2)


taxpayer contacts with IRS concerning these refunds. In addition, we


discussed advance tax refund procedures with FMS officials and obtained


statistics on the number of refund checks that were undeliverable and the


number and dollar value of refunds that were offset for debts other than


1

P. L. No. 107-16, 115 Stat. 38. 

Page 1 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Results in Brief 

federal tax debts. We identified problems encountered during the 

program’s implementation through (1) analyses of statistical data and 

other information and (2) discussions with IRS and FMS officials and staff 

of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) who 

were reviewing various aspects of the program. We did not independently 

verify the statistical data provided by IRS and FMS. 

We did our work between July and December 2001 in accordance with 

generally accepted government auditing standards. We obtained written 

comments on a draft of this report from the Commissioner of Internal 

Revenue and the Commissioner of FMS. Their comments are discussed 

near the end of this report and are reprinted in appendixes I and II, 

respectively. 

As of September 30, 2001, about 84 million taxpayers were to have 

received about $36 billion in advance tax refunds. IRS offset about $2.1 

billion from these advance tax refunds to recover delinquent federal 

taxes.2

 FMS offset another $469 million for delinquent child support 

payments, state taxes, and federal debts other than delinquent taxes. It 

cost IRS about $104 million to administer the advance tax refund program 

through September 30, 2001, which included IRS staffing costs as well as 

the costs associated with contracts, postage, and printing. FMS expects to 

incur about $34 million in costs to issue the checks. 

TIGTA identified two initial problems that affected either the accuracy or 

timeliness of the advance refund notices that IRS sent to taxpayers.3

 One 

problem involved computer programming errors that resulted in 523,000 

taxpayers receiving notices indicating that they would receive larger 

advance tax refunds than they were entitled to receive. TIGTA brought the 

problem to IRS’ attention, and IRS corrected it before any advance tax 

refunds were issued. TIGTA also determined that 5.3 million taxpayers 

who had filed their tax returns by the April 16 filing deadline would have 

delays from 1 to 9 weeks in receiving their advance refund notices because 

of IRS’ procedures for processing returns and the way programming was 

developed to generate the notices. 

2

IRS indicated that this offset amount was an unofficial count. 

3

While Most Taxpayers Received Accurate and Timely Notification of Their Advance 

Refunds, Millions Did Not (TIGTA, 2002-40-016, Oct. 24, 2001). 

Page 2 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Two problems that continued throughout the advance tax refund period 

involved (1) undeliverable refund notices and checks due to incorrect 

addresses and (2) taxpayer difficulties in reaching IRS telephone assistors. 

According to IRS, almost 2 million advance refund notices were 

undeliverable as of September 30, 2001, and almost 300,000 advance 

refund checks valued at about $95 million were undeliverable as of 

October 30, 2001. IRS has procedures in place for updating addresses of 

taxpayers whose checks were returned as undeliverable. Taxpayers 

attempting to reach an IRS telephone assistor from July 1 through 

September 30, 2001, were successful 47 percent of the time, which was 

well below the 61-percent level of service reported during the 2001 filing 

season. Taxpayer demand for telephone service increased significantly 

during the advance tax refund period, according to IRS data, and IRS 

attributed the decline in service to that increased demand. IRS had taken 

steps to prepare for the demand for telephone assistance that it expected 

during the advance tax refund period. At the time we prepared this report, 

we did not have sufficient information to determine to what extent, if at 

all, the demand for telephone service exceeded IRS’ expectations or what 

other factors might have contributed to the decline in service. 

Another problem that was quickly identified and corrected during the 

early stages of the advance tax refund period involved duplicate checks 

sent to about 25 taxpayers. FMS had recovered either all or part of the 

duplicate payments from 16 of the 25 taxpayers as of November 2001 and 

was in the process of recovering the duplicate payments from the other 9 

taxpayers. 

For tax years beginning after 2000, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief 

Reconciliation Act of 2001 applied a new 10-percent income tax rate to a 

portion of an individual’s income that was previously taxed at 15 percent. 

To stimulate the economy more rapidly than would be achieved if 

taxpayers had to wait until they filed their tax year 2001 tax returns to 

realize the full impact of this rate reduction, the Act provided for eligible 

taxpayers to receive an advance 2001 tax refund. To be eligible for an 

advance refund, taxpayers (1) had to have a federal income tax liability on 

their tax year 2000 return, (2) could not be claimed as a dependent on 

someone else’s tax year 2000 return, and (3) could not be a nonresident 

alien.

4

 The amount of advance tax refund that taxpayers could receive 

4

IRS identified about 34 million taxpayers who were ineligible for an advance tax refund. 

Background 

Page 3 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
depended on the filing status and amount of taxable income shown on the 

taxpayer’s tax year 2000 return. The maximum refund amount was $600 

for a married couple filing jointly or a qualified widow(er), $500 for a head 

of household, and $300 for a single individual or married person filing 

separately. 

Before issuance of the advance tax refund checks, IRS was to send every 

individual who filed a return for tax year 2000 a notice either informing 

them of the refund amount they were to receive and the week in which 

they were to receive it or telling them that they were ineligible for a refund 

and why. FMS was to issue the advance tax refund checks for IRS with 

assistance from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).5 

Before issuing any check, IRS and FMS were to reduce the amount of the 

check by the amount of any delinquent federal tax or certain other debts, 

such as delinquent child support payments, owed by the taxpayer. 

Most advance refund checks were to be issued over a 10-week period from 

the week of July 23, 2001, through the week of September 24, 2001, based, 

in general, on the last two digits of a taxpayer’s Social Security number 

(SSN). For example, taxpayers with 00 through 09 as the last two digits of 

their SSN were to receive their checks the week of July 23, 2001, while 

taxpayers with 90 through 99 as the last two digits of their SSN were to 

receive their checks the week of September 24, 2001. Taxpayers who filed 

their tax year 2000 returns after April 16 were to receive their advance tax 

refund checks later in the fall.

6

 All checks were to be issued by December 

31, 2001. 

IRS, through FMS, mailed out advance tax refunds according to a schedule 

that called for taxpayers to begin receiving checks the week of July 23, 

2001. As shown in table 1, from then through the end of September, about 

84.1 million taxpayers were to have received about $35.5 billion in advance 

tax refunds. 

5

Due to the large volume of advance tax refund checks expected to be issued each week, 

FMS arranged for DFAS to assist in issuing these checks. DFAS regularly issues payments 

on behalf of the Department of Defense for military and civilian pay, military retirement, 

and contractor and vendor payments. 

6

Because April 15, 2001, fell on a Sunday, the deadline for filing tax year 2000 individual 

income tax returns was extended to April 16, 2001. 

Billions of Dollars in 

Advance Tax Refunds 

Sent to Millions of 

Taxpayers 

Page 4 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Table 1: Number of Taxpayers and Amount of Advance Tax Refunds Each Week 

Through September 30, 2001 

Week of payment Number of taxpayers Amount of refunds 

July 23 8,040,498 $3,381,003,777 

July 30 8,269,032 3,489,098,035 

August 6 8,321,705 3,514,096,376 

August 13 8,348,699 3,513,145,771 

August 20 8,359,913 3,530,135,846 

August 27 8,407,725 3,550,997,429 

September 3 8,458,451 3,575,196,124 

September 10 8,534,881 3,608,636,104 

September 17 8,599,113 3,638,376,094 

September 24 8,759,601 3,712,510,736 

Totals 84,099,618 $35,513,196,292 

Source: GAO’s analysis of IRS’ data. 

According to IRS officials, it cost IRS about $104 million to administer the 

advance tax refund program through the end of fiscal year 2001. Included 

in these costs were $36 million for contract costs, $33 million for postage, 

$30 million for labor, and $5 million for printing. IRS expected to incur an 

additional $12 million in labor costs during fiscal year 2002 related to the 

advance tax refunds, because refund payments were to be made through 

the end of December 2001. FMS expected to incur about $34 million in 

total costs to issue the checks on behalf of IRS, including the assistance 

provided by DFAS. 

To administer the advance tax refund program, IRS, among other things, 

had to 

•	 develop the computer programming necessary to determine taxpayer 

eligibility for the refund and the amount of each refund, including any 

related federal tax offset; 

•	 arrange for printing and mailing of notices that informed taxpayers 

whether they would receive a refund; 

•	 respond to telephone calls and correspondence from taxpayers 

concerning the refund; 

• resolve undelivered and returned advance refund checks; and 

•	 prepare adjustment notices for refunds that were offset due to federal tax 

debts. 

According to an IRS official, it took about 3 months between March 2001 

and June 2001 to develop the necessary computer programming and to 

Page 5 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
arrange for printing and mailing of notices needed to implement the 

advance tax refund program. IRS temporarily reassigned staff from other 

functions to assist with taxpayer telephone calls and correspondence 

related to the advance tax refunds. For example, IRS recalled furloughed 

staff at its forms distribution centers to assist taxpayers who called IRS 

with questions about the advance refund that were relatively easy to 

answer. In addition, IRS used submission processing staff from its 

Philadelphia Service Center to help respond to over 90,000 written 

inquiries from taxpayers concerning the advance tax refunds. 

Advance Tax Refunds 

Were Offset to Recover 

Federal Taxes and Other 

Debts 

For any taxpayer whose account involves a federal tax debt, IRS is to 

offset the advance tax refund due to the taxpayer, either in whole or in 

part, to collect the debt. In addition, FMS is to offset the advance tax 

refunds to collect other types of debt via the Treasury Offset Program.

7 

The notice IRS sent to taxpayers who were eligible to receive an advance 

tax refund included a statement that the amount of the refund could be 

reduced by any outstanding debt owed, such as past due federal and state 

taxes or child support. 

According to data obtained from IRS and FMS, the two agencies had offset 

the advance tax refunds by almost $2.7 billion because of taxpayer debt. 

As of September 30, 2001, IRS had offset about $2.1 billion to recover 

delinquent federal tax. As of October 31, 2001, FMS had offset about $469 

million for the following reasons: 

• $263 million for delinquent child support. 

• $191 million for federal debts other than delinquent taxes. 

• $15 million for delinquent state taxes. 

7

The Treasury Offset Program involves a centralized database of delinquent debts referred 

to FMS for offset against federal payments and includes federal non-tax debts, state tax 

debts, and child support debts. 

Page 6 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Various Problems 

Occurred During • Implementation of 

the Advance Refund • 

Program 

The following problems were encountered in implementing the advance


tax refund program:


A computer programming problem resulted in about 523,000 taxpayers


receiving inaccurate refund notices.


About 5.3 million taxpayers received untimely refund notices because of


IRS’ procedures for processing returns and the way programming was


developed to generate advance refund notices.


•	 About 2 million notices were returned to IRS due to incorrect addresses 

and, as of October 30, 2001, IRS had about 300,000 undeliverable checks 

for which it was seeking updated addresses. 

•	 Taxpayers who called IRS during the advance tax refund period had 

greater difficulty reaching IRS assistors than did taxpayers who called 

during the same timeframe in 2000 or during the 2001 tax filing season. 

•	 A small number of taxpayers received duplicate checks in the early stages 

of the program. 

Programming Problem 

Resulted in Some 

Inaccurate Advance 

Refund Notices 

TIGTA identified an IRS computer programming problem that resulted in 

about 523,000 taxpayers receiving inaccurate advance refund notices. 

As noted earlier, the maximum amount of a taxpayer’s advance refund was 

to be $600, $500, or $300 depending on the taxpayer’s filing status. 

However, the actual amount of the advance refund was limited to the 

lesser of (1) 5 percent of the taxable income on the taxpayer’s tax year 

2000 return and (2) the net income tax from the tax year 2000 return after 

subtracting nonrefundable credits, such as the credit for child and 

dependent care expenses, child tax credit, credit for the elderly, and 

education credit.8 TIGTA found that IRS had erred in developing its 

computer program by not limiting advance refund amounts to the net 

income tax after credits, thus resulting in the inaccurate advance refund 

notices. 

TIGTA informed IRS of this problem on July 3, 2001, and IRS was able to 

correct the problem before any advance refunds were issued—thus 

avoiding overpayments of about $118 million. IRS also sent corrected 

notices to the affected taxpayers. 

8

Internal Revenue Code section 6428. 

Page 7 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Many Taxpayers Received 

Untimely Notices 

TIGTA also determined that 5.3 million taxpayers who filed their tax 

returns by the April 16 filing deadline would have delays from 1 week to 9 

weeks in receiving their advance refund notices. TIGTA attributed the 

delays to the following two reasons. 

•	 IRS’ normal procedure is to process income tax returns filed by taxpayers 

who are due to receive a tax refund before processing income tax returns 

filed by other taxpayers. Thus, many nonrefund returns filed by April 16 

had not been processed by the time IRS prepared the list of taxpayers who 

would receive the first mailout of advance refund notices. 

•	 When IRS developed the programming to generate the advance refund 

notices for taxpayers affected by the above processing procedure, it 

decided to have the notices mailed to the taxpayers just before they were 

to receive their advance refund checks instead of having the notices 

mailed as soon as the tax return was processed. 

In response to a TIGTA recommendation, IRS issued a news release 

explaining that some taxpayers might experience a delay in receiving their 

advance tax refund notices. 

Many Advance Refund 

Notices and Checks Were 

Undeliverable 

One problem that IRS encountered throughout the implementation of the 

advance tax refund program involved undeliverable refund notices and 

checks due to incorrect addresses. Undeliverable advance refund notices 

were to be returned to IRS’ Philadelphia Service Center, and undeliverable 

advance refund checks were to be returned to the FMS payment center 

from which they were issued. 

Through September 30, 2001, almost 2 million advance tax refund notices 

were returned to IRS as undeliverable, including about 1.1 million notices 

sent to taxpayers who were to receive a refund and about 900,000 notices 

sent to taxpayers who were ineligible for a refund. According to an IRS 

official, the undeliverable notices were sorted and counted by type of 

notice and then destroyed. Because these notices were sent to taxpayers 

via first class mail, the Postal Service was to forward notices for which 

taxpayers had provided an address change. Therefore, IRS decided that it 

would not be cost effective to follow up on the undeliverable notices. Even 

if a notice to a taxpayer who was to receive an advance tax refund was 

returned as undeliverable, a check would still have been sent to that 

taxpayer. 

In a news release dated October 30, 2001, IRS indicated that there were 

almost 300,000 undeliverable advance refund checks valued at about $95 

Page 8 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
million for which they urged taxpayers to contact IRS so that the checks 

could be reissued to the correct address. According to an FMS official, 

undeliverable tax refund checks are cancelled and information concerning 

the cancelled checks is sent to IRS. IRS is to then research a taxpayer’s 

account to determine if there is an updated address to which another 

check can be sent. IRS updates taxpayer addresses each week through a 

National Change of Address Database maintained by the Postal Service. 

Taxpayers can also update their addresses with IRS by submitting an IRS 

Form 8822 “Change of Address.” In addition, IRS authorized its customer 

service representatives to accept change of address information over the 

telephone from taxpayers who call about their advance tax refund. 

According to IRS Philadelphia Service Center officials, much of the written 

correspondence they received involved address changes from taxpayers 

who wanted to ensure that they would receive their advance refunds. 

Although the number of undeliverable advance refund checks was 

substantial, the percentage of checks returned as undeliverable (less than 

1 percent) was less than the approximate 4 percent rate that an FMS 

official indicated was normal for undeliverable tax refunds. 

Taxpayers Calling IRS 

During the Advance Tax 

Refund Period Had 

Problems Reaching an 

Assistor 

At the time we prepared this report, we had data on the accessibility of 

IRS’ telephone assistance for the first 3 months of the advance tax refund 

period. The data showed that taxpayers calling IRS during those 3 months 

had problems reaching an assistor. Overall, when compared with the same 

3-month period in 2000 and with the 2001 tax filing season, the 

accessibility of IRS’ telephone assistance during the advance tax refund 

period generally declined. 

IRS had a two-pronged approach for responding to the increased demand 

for telephone assistance that it expected during the advance tax refund 

period. The first prong of IRS’ strategy was to handle as many calls as 

possible through automation, thereby freeing up assistors to handle calls 

that required live assistance. To accomplish this, IRS publicized its 

TeleTax phone number on notices sent to taxpayers and though an 

announcement played on IRS’ main telephone assistance line. The TeleTax 

line had recorded information on the rebate program and an interactive 

service that told the taxpayer the expected date the check would be 

mailed based on the last two digits of the Social Security number entered 

by the taxpayer. The second prong of IRS’ strategy was to increase the 

staffing devoted to telephone assistance. We are continuing to obtain 

information on the extent of IRS’ efforts in this regard. Among other 

things, however, IRS’ forms distribution centers recalled 450 employees 

Page 9 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
from furlough and trained them to handle simpler calls related to the 

rebate. 

Despite IRS’ efforts to meet the increased demand for telephone 

assistance during the advance tax refund period, taxpayers had greater 

difficulty in accessing that assistance. IRS has four measures for judging 

its performance in providing access to telephone assistance. As shown in 

table 2, IRS’ performance during the first 3 months of the advance tax 

refund period declined for all four measures compared with the same time 

period in 2000 and declined for three of the four measures compared with 

the 2001 filing season.9 

Table 2: Accessibility of IRS’ Telephone Assistance During Advance Tax Refund 

Period 

Measure 

7/1 through 

9/30/01 

7/1 through 

9/30/00 

2001 filing 

seasona 

Assistor level of serviceb 47% 64% 61% 

Assistor response level

c 37% 38% 41% d

Abandon rate 18% 12% 18% e

Average speed of answer 408 seconds 260 seconds 273 seconds 

a

The 2001 filing season data are for January 1 through July 14, 2001. 

b

This measure is intended to show IRS’ effectiveness in providing callers with access to an assistor. It 

includes callers who received automated service when the assistor service queue was full. 

c

This measure reflects the percentage of taxpayers who waited 30 seconds or less to speak with an 

assistor. 

d

This measure shows the percentage of taxpayers who hung up while waiting to speak to an assistor. 

e

This measure shows the average number of seconds taxpayers waited to speak to an assistor. 

Source: GAO’s analysis of IRS’ data. 

We are inquiring into reasons for the decline in telephone accessibility 

during the advance tax refund period and will include that information in 

our final report. However, one possible explanation is that the demand for 

telephone assistance exceeded IRS’ expectations. Although we did not 

have usable information on IRS’ expectations when we wrote this report, 

we did have IRS data on actual demand. IRS measures demand in two 

9

When we prepared this report, the most recent IRS data on accessibility was for July 1 

through September 30, 2001. Because of management information system limitations, IRS 

does not regularly calculate these measures. IRS officials said that they would provide data 

for October 1 through December 31, 2001, as soon as they are available. 

Page 10 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
ways—total call attempts and unique telephone number attempts.

10 

According to IRS data for both of those measures, the demand for 

telephone assistance was about twice as high during the first 3 months of 

the advance tax refund period as it was during the same time period in 

2000. In the first 3 months of the advance tax refund period, IRS received 

about 23.8 million total call attempts and about 13.3 million unique number 

attempts, compared to about 11.4 million and 7.1 million, respectively, 

during the same period in 2000.11 

In commenting on a draft of this report, the Commissioner of Internal 

Revenue said that although IRS made “extraordinary efforts to handle 

advance refund calls,” the high volume of telephone calls resulted in a 

reduced level of service. The Commissioner’s letter, which is in appendix 

I, cites various statistics to document the increase in demand. Because 

those statistics include calls to TeleTax, they differ from the statistics 

cited in the preceding paragraph. 

Some Taxpayers Received 

Duplicate Checks 

Another problem related to the advance tax refunds was identified within 

the first 2 weeks of the advance refund period and promptly corrected. 

The problem involved duplicate checks sent to taxpayers by one of the 

three DFAS centers that assisted FMS in issuing the advance tax refund 

checks. The problem surfaced when two taxpayers who had received 

duplicate checks tried to cash the second check and a third taxpayer 

notified IRS about receiving a duplicate check. Once the problem was 

identified, FMS decided to suspend use of the DFAS center from which the 

duplicate checks had emanated. According to FMS, due to significantly 

lower check volumes than originally anticipated, the DFAS center was 

subsequently retained as a contingency site, rather than being returned to 

full check production. 

10The number of total call attempts includes repeat calls and is the sum of calls answered, 

calls abandoned by the caller before receiving assistance, and calls that received a busy 

signal. The unique telephone number measure is IRS’ estimate of the number of taxpayers 

who called, rather than the number of calls. It measures the number of calls from 

identifiable telephone numbers and counts all call attempts from each telephone number as 

one call until the caller reaches IRS and is served, or until a 1-week window expires. 

11The total call attempts data are for July 1 through September 29, and the unique number 

attempts data are for July 1 through September 30. Both sets of data are for IRS’ three main 

toll-free telephone assistance lines and do not include calls to the TeleTax line. 

Page 11 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
According to an FMS official, as of November 2001, about 25 instances of 

duplicate checks had been identified. Of the 25 taxpayers who received 

duplicate checks, 14 taxpayers had either fully repaid the extra payment or 

had returned the duplicate check and 2 taxpayers had partially repaid the 

extra payment. FMS was in the process of recovering the duplicate 

payments from the other nine taxpayers. 

Agency Comments
 In commenting on a draft of this report, the Commissioner of Internal 

Revenue and the Commissioner of FMS provided some clarifying 

information that we used to revise the report where appropriate. In 

commenting on the advance tax refund program in general, the 

Commissioner of Internal Revenue said that IRS was able to accomplish 

what it did by “applying the maximum resources possible and giving it top 

priority management attention.” The Commissioner of FMS said that the 

program was “extremely successful particularly considering the time 

constraints placed upon us to plan and execute this critically important 

and highly visible program.” 

As we agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents 

of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30 days 

from the date of this letter. We will then send copies to others who are 

interested and make copies available to others who request them. 

This report was prepared under the direction of David J. Attianese, 

Assistant Director. If you have any questions about this report, please 

contact me or Mr. Attianese at (202) 512-9110. Key contributors to this 

assignment were Ronald W. Jones and Robert C. McKay. 

James R. White 

Director, Tax Issues 

Page 12 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Appendix I: Comments From the Internal 

Revenue Service 

Page 13 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Appendix I: Comments From the Internal 

Revenue Service 

Page 14 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
Appendix II: Comments From the Financial 

Management Service 

(440096) Page 15 GAO-02-257 Advance Tax Refunds 
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