**GAO-03-299**                      Published: Jan 15, 2003. Publicly Released: Feb 14, 2003.                  

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## Highlights

Lockbox banks are commercial banks that process certain taxpayer receipts on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Following an incident at a lockbox site during 2001, which involved the loss and destruction of about 78,000 tax receipts totaling more than $1.2 billion, the Senate Committee on Finance asked GAO to examine whether (1) provisions of the contracts under which lockbox banks operate address previously identified problems or might contribute to mishandling of tax receipts, (2) oversight of lockbox banks is adequate, (3) internal controls are sufficient, and (4) IRS and Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) had considered the costs and benefits of contracting out the functions performed by lockbox banks.

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## Topics

Tax Policy and Administration

Bank managementContract costsContract oversightCost effectiveness analysisFinancial institutionsInternal controlsTax administrationTax administration systemsTaxpayersTaxpayer data