Title II of the Act establishes a Congressional policy that paperless filing should be the preferred and most convenient means of filing Federal tax and information returns, and sets a goal for the IRS of having at least 80 percent of these returns filed electronically by the year 2007. The Act expects that the IRS will achieve this goal by cooperating with the private sector and encouraging competition, and further requires that the IRS establish a private sector advisory committee to assist it in meeting these goals. The inclusion of Title II, Electronic Filing, in the Act is due in large part to the leadership shown by the Oversight Subcommittee, which recognized the importance of electronic filing and other electronic tax administration services. Electronic filing has the potential to improve the IRS' ability to provide taxpayers with customer service on a par with other modern financial institutions with which many taxpayers interact. It also introduces productivity savings to the IRS that allows it to shift resources away from the labor intensive processing of paper returns into customer service.
Taxpayers benefit directly also, as electronic filing has a much lower error rate than paper filing.
Our first mission is to help the IRS meet its electronic filing goals by providing it with private sector input. Our second mission is to provide Congress with an annual report that describes IRS' progress in meeting its electronic filing goals, the status of its strategic plans, any legislative changes necessary to assist the IRS in meeting the goals, and the effects of electronic filing on small businesses and the self-employed. Release of a strategic plan, A Strategy for Growth , in December 1998, which described IRS' approach for achieving its electronic tax administration goals. An increase of 19 percent in electronic filing during the 1999 tax filing season. Initiation of programs in 1999 designed to increase the attractiveness of electronic filing and the development of plans for additional initiatives for 2000 and future years.