IRS provides tax law assistance to taxpayers through IRS’s toll-free telephone lines and tax law and return preparation assistance in person at IRS taxpayer assistance centers (formerly known as “walk-in sites”) nationwide, in addition to other means. The four taxpayer assistance programs we reviewed were: W&I Customer Accounts Services (CAS) general tax law assistance by telephone. Many taxpayers contact IRS by calling its toll-free telephone number which is operated and staffed by CAS. According to IRS fiscal year 2004 data, 3,420 CAS staff handled more than 8.7 million telephone calls from taxpayers with general, less complex tax law questions. We did not verify these IRS data or other IRS data on taxpayer assistance programs’ workload and staffing. SB/SE Taxpayer Education Communication (TEC) complex tax law assistance by phone. According to IRS officials, during the 2005 filing season and in previous years, TEC staff supported telephone service by answering taxpayers’ questions on selected, more complex tax topics. When taxpayers called IRS’s toll-free number about these topics, W&I CAS staff recorded the taxpayers’ contact information and questions so that TEC staff could call the taxpayers back later to provide answers. According to IRS, in the 2004 filing season, TEC handled about 320,000 telephone calls for complex tax law assistance. According to IRS, TEC trained approximately 400 staff and used 272,212 staff hours to provide telephone assistance in 2004. In 2006 these calls will be handled by W&I CAS staff. W&I Customer Assistance, Relationships, and Education (CARE) walk-in tax law assistance. According to IRS, about 1.4 million staff hours were devoted to providing walk-in assistance in fiscal year 2004. Also according to IRS, 1,654 staff were trained to provide tax law assistance in 2004. In 2004, there were about 7.7 million contacts with taxpayers at IRS’s approximately 400 taxpayer assistance centers. IRS did not have information on how many of these contacts were for tax law assistance. Many of the contacts were for other services, such as tax forms, publications, or accounts issues. W&I Customer Assistance, Relationships, and Education (CARE) walk-in return preparation assistance. According to IRS data, IRS staff prepared 476,813 tax returns in fiscal year 2004. IRS did not have data on the number of staff that prepared tax returns at taxpayer assistance centers. IRS does not have data on the amount of time its assistors spend annually being trained on tax law. However, all staff providing tax law assistance receive some training each year. IRS has continuing professional education and refresher training requirements for all its taxpayer assistance staff. Tax law assistance staff receive a variety of training. According to an IRS official, the staff get primarily classroom training but also receive computer-based training. On-the-job training, managerial coaching, and workshops are also part of training. Taxpayer assistance staff receive training on technical tax law topics, how to use IRS systems and guidance to answer questions, and communication. Responsibility for training and developing IRS’s tax law assistance staff is decentralized. IRS’s Human Capital Office provides guidance and sets policy and standards on training and development for the agency. W&I and SB/SE each have a human resources office with Learning and Education (L&E) staff who are assigned to the taxpayer assistance programs. L&E staff provide program staff advice and analysis on related policies and issues and formulate strategies, procedures, and practices to address the programs’ human capital needs, including training. Generally speaking, the taxpayer assistance program offices identify training needs, L&E staff work with program staff to develop and fund annual training plans, and the program offices administer training. According to IRS policy, L&E staff are responsible for evaluating training. According to fiscal year 2004 IRS data, IRS invested about $7 million in training W&I CAS and CARE staff to provide taxpayer assistance, including such expenses as travel, supplies, contractor fees, and development costs. IRS could not separate these costs into amounts spent on tax law training and other topics. According to SB/SE TEC fiscal year 2004 data, training costs were $325,072 in student and instructor travel. However, the cost data IRS provided did not include the costs of assistors’ time associated with training. As with the staffing and workload data, we did not verify the accuracy of IRS’s training cost data. In March 2004, we issued an assessment guide that introduced a framework for evaluating a federal agency’s training and development efforts. This assessment guide consists of a set of principles and key questions that federal agencies can use to ensure that their training and development investments are targeted strategically and are not wasted on efforts that are irrelevant, duplicative, or ineffective. As detailed in our assessment guide, the training and development process can loosely be segmented into four broad, interrelated components: (1) planning/front- end analysis, (2) design/development, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation. Figure 1 depicts the general relationships between the four components, including the feedback loop between evaluation and planning. Planning and evaluation are highlighted because they are the focus of this report. Although these components can be discussed separately, they are not mutually exclusive and encompass subcomponents that may blend with one another. For instance, evaluation is part of the planning as organizations should reach agreement up front on how the success of training and development efforts will be assessed. TIGTA is conducting a review that covers some aspects of the design and implementation of training. Our work examined the training and development of employees who provide tax law and return preparation assistance to taxpayers over the telephone and at walk-in centers, and covered both seasonal and full-time employees in IRS’s W&I and SB/SE divisions. Our assessment of IRS’s training and development program for taxpayer assistance employees was based on analyses of IRS data and interviews with IRS officials. We also obtained background information from sources outside IRS such as TIGTA, the IRS Oversight Board, and the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate. To assess how IRS plans for and evaluates the training and development of IRS employees who provide tax law and return preparation assistance to taxpayers over the telephone and at walk-in centers, we used our guide for assessing training and development programs in the federal government as a framework. We used the parts of the GAO guide dealing with the planning and evaluation components, along with supplemental guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, to identify the detailed strategic training and development criteria applicable to IRS and organized them into chronological phases. We focused our criteria on strategic planning and evaluation, that is, planning and evaluation intended to help achieve IRS’s accuracy goals. We developed 27 criteria, listed in appendices I and II. We also developed examples of evidence that would demonstrate conformance with each of the criteria. For example, for the criterion “conduct a knowledge and skills inventory to identify employees’ current skills and knowledge,” we looked for evidence such as a completed knowledge and skills surveys and proficiency tests (see app. I for the planning phase criteria and further evidence examples and app. II for the same information on evaluation.) We shared the criteria with officials in IRS’s Human Capital Office and the taxpayer assistance programs and assigned L&E staff. The officials from the Human Capital Office said the criteria are appropriate and consistent with their policy guidance. Some program and L&E officials expressed concerns about their need and ability to satisfy the criteria. Their concerns are discussed in the planning and evaluation sections of this report. In applying the criteria to IRS, we collected documents describing IRS’s planning and evaluation processes for the four types of assistance. We also interviewed officials responsible for the taxpayer assistance programs in W&I CAS and CARE units and SB/SE TEC unit and associated L&E staff responsible for training planning and evaluation, to get more details where needed. We reviewed all the evidence and made a judgment about the extent to which IRS’s practices conformed to the criteria. We then discussed our initial assessments with IRS officials responsible for planning and evaluating the taxpayer assistance training and development programs who, for some of our preliminary assessments, provided additional written evidence for us to consider in making our final assessments. We then revised our initial assessments based on the evidence they provided. We made our assessments in two steps. First, an analyst reviewed all the evidence and made a judgment about the extent to which it conformed to the criteria. Then a second analyst independently reviewed the assessments. The evidence supporting our assessments is provided in appendices III through X. Much of the information we relied on was descriptive. We determined that the information was reliable for our purposes. To the extent possible we corroborated interview evidence with documentation. Where not possible, the description is attributable to IRS officials. Where relevant we corroborated that policy guidance, such as Internal Revenue Manual guidance, was being implemented by collecting documentation and reports showing implementation. With respect to controls over databases, we reviewed documentation of the controls but did not assess their adequacy or test data in the databases. We conducted our work at the Wage and Investment Division headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.; the Small Business/Self-Employed Division offices in Philadelphia, Pa.; and IRS headquarters Human Capital Office in Washington, D.C. from May 2004 through May 2005 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Summarizing table 1, IRS’s planning for taxpayer assistance training primarily focuses on meeting short-term needs, such as the challenge of training staff about tax law changes in preparation for the next year’s filing season. Planning could be enhanced by long-term goals and analyses of the relative importance of the factors that affect accuracy, other organizations’ experiences, and gaps between long-term needs and existing skills. Table 1 shows our assessments of planning for training by IRS’s four primary taxpayer assistance programs for each phase of the planning process: goals and priorities, information gathering and assessments, skills and knowledge analysis, and strategy development and selection.