IRS’s fiscal year 2006 budget request reflects a continuing shift in priorities by proposing reductions in taxpayer service and increases in enforcement activities. The request does not provide details about how the reductions will impact taxpayers in the short-term. Nor does IRS have long-term goals; thus the contribution of the fiscal year 2006 budget request to achieving IRS’s mission in the long-term is unclear. Because of budget constraints and the progress IRS has made improving the quality of taxpayer services, this is an opportune time to reconsider the menu of services IRS offers. IRS is requesting $10.9 billion, which includes just over a 1 percent decrease for taxpayer service, a 2 percent decrease for BSM, and nearly an 8 percent increase for enforcement, as shown in table 1. As table 1 further shows, the changes proposed in the 2006 budget request continue a trend from 2004. In comparison to the fiscal year 2004 enacted budget, the 2006 budget request proposes almost 4 percent less for service, almost 49 percent less for BSM, and nearly 14 percent more for enforcement. As table 1 also shows, taxpayer service sustained a reduction of $104 million or 2.8 percent between fiscal years 2004 and 2005. According to IRS officials, the majority of this reduction was the result of consolidating paper-processing operations, shifting resources from service to enforcement, and reducing some services. IRS officials said that this reduction is not expected to adversely impact the services they provide to taxpayers but added that the agency cannot continue to absorb reductions in taxpayer service without beginning to compromise some services. For fiscal years 2005 and 2006, table 2 shows some details of changes in both dollars and full-time equivalents (FTE). Both are shown because funding changes do not translate into proportional changes in FTEs due to cost increases for salaries, rent, and other items. For example, the $39 million or 1.1 percent reduction in taxpayer service translates into a reduction of 1,385 FTEs or 3.6 percent. Similarly, the over $500 million or 7.8 percent increase in enforcement spending translates into an increase of 1,961 FTEs or 3.4 percent. The difference between changes in dollars and FTEs could be even larger because of unbudgeted expenses. Unbudgeted expenses have consumed some of IRS’s budget increases and internal savings increases over the last few years. Unbudgeted expenses include unfunded portions of annual salary increases, which can be substantial given IRS’s large workforce, and other costs such as higher-than-budgeted rent increases. According to IRS officials, these unbudgeted expenses accounted for over $150 million in each of the last 4 years. An IRS official also told us they anticipate having to cover unbudgeted expenses in 2006. As of March 2005, IRS officials were projecting unbudgeted salary increases of at least $40 million. This projection could change since potential federal salary increases for 2006 have not been determined. The budget request provides some detail on how IRS plans to absorb cost increases in the taxpayer service budget. IRS is proposing a gross reduction of over $134 million in taxpayer service from reexamining the budget’s base and plans to use more than $95 million of it to cover annual increases such as salaries. This leaves a net reduction of nearly $39 million or 1.1 percent in the taxpayer service budget. The extent to which IRS is able to achieve the gross reductions will impact its ability to use the funds as anticipated. Decisions on how the $134 million gross reduction would be absorbed were not finalized prior to releasing the budget. According to IRS officials, some of the reductions would result from efficiency gains such as reducing printing and postage costs; however, others would result from reductions in the services provided to taxpayers such as shortening the hours of toll- free telephone service operations. The officials also said most decisions have now been made about general areas for reduction and most changes will not be readily apparent to taxpayers. Although IRS has made general decisions about the reductions, many of the details have yet to be determined. Therefore, the extent of the impact on taxpayers in the short term is unclear. For example, IRS plans to reduce dependence on field assistance, including walk-in sites, but has not reached a final decision on how to reduce services. Table 3 provides further detail on how IRS is proposing to reduce funding and resources for taxpayer service. IRS’s fiscal year 2006 budget request is the sixth consecutive year the agency has requested additional staffing for enforcement. However, up until last year, IRS was unable to increase enforcement staffing; unbudgeted costs and other priorities consumed the budget increase. IRS’s proposal for fiscal year 2006, if implemented as planned, would return enforcement staffing in these occupations to their highest levels since 1999. Of the more than $500 million increase requested for 2006, about $265 million would fund enforcement initiatives, over $182 million would be used in part for salary increases, and over $55 million is a proposal to transfer funding authority from the Department of Justice’s Interagency Crime and Drug Enforcement. The $500 million increase would be supplemented by internal enforcement savings of $88 million. As is the case with taxpayer service savings, the extent to which IRS achieves enforcement savings will affect its ability to fund the new enforcement initiatives. The $265 million for new enforcement initiatives consist of: $149.7 million and 920 FTEs to attack corrosive non-compliance activity driving the tax gap such as abusive trusts and shelters, including offshore credit cards and organized tax resistance; $51.8 million and 236 FTEs to detect and deter corrosive corporate non- compliance to attack complex abusive tax avoidance transactions on a global basis and challenge those who promote their use; $37.9 million and 417 FTEs to increase individual taxpayer compliance by identifying and implementing actions to address non-compliance with filing requirements; increasing Automated Underreporter resources to address the reporting compliance tax gap; increasing audit coverage; and expanding collection work in walk-in sites; $14.5 million and 77 FTEs to combat abusive transactions by entities with special tax status by initiating examinations more promptly, safeguarding compliant customers from unscrupulous promoters, and increasing vigilance to ensure that the assets of tax-exempt organizations are put to their intended tax-preferred purpose and not misdirected to fund terrorism or for private gain; and $10.8 million and 22 FTEs to curtail fraudulent refund crimes. The $88 million in internal savings would be reinvested to perform the following activities: $66.7 million and 585 FTEs to devote resources to front-line $14.9 million and 156 FTEs to, in part, address bankruptcy-related $6.7 million and 52 FTEs to address complex, high-risk issues such as compliance among tax professionals. In the past, IRS has had trouble achieving enforcement staffing increases because other priorities, including unbudgeted expenses, have absorbed additional funds. IRS achieved some gains in 2004 and expects modest gains in 2005. Figure 1 shows that the number of revenue agents (those who audit complex returns), revenue officers (those who do field collection work), and special agents (those who perform criminal investigations) decreased over 21 percent between 1998 and 2003, but increased almost 6 percent from 2003 to 2004. IRS’s recent gains in enforcement staffing are encouraging, as tax law enforcement continues to remain an area of high risk for the federal government because the resources IRS has dedicated to enforcing the tax laws have declined, while IRS’s enforcement workload—measured by the number of taxpayer returns filed—has continually increased. Figure 2 shows the trend in field, correspondence, and total audit rates since 1995. Field audits involve face-to-face audits and correspondence audits are typically less complex involving communication through notices. IRS experienced steep declines in audit rates from 1995 to 1999, but the audit rate—the proportion of tax returns that IRS audits each year—has slowly increased since 2000. The figure shows that the increase in total audit rates of individual filers has been driven mostly by correspondence audits, while more complex field audits, continue to decline. The link between the decline in enforcement staff and the decline in enforcement actions, such as audits, is complicated, and the real impact on taxpayers’ rate of voluntary compliance is not known. This leaves open the question of whether the declines in IRS’s enforcement programs are eroding taxpayers’ incentives to voluntarily comply. IRS’s National Research Program (NRP) recently completed a study on compliance by individual tax filers based on tax data provided on 2001 tax returns. The study estimated that the tax gap—the difference between what taxpayers owe and what they pay—is at least $312 billion per year as of 2001 and could be as large as $353 billion. This study is important for several reasons beyond measuring compliance. It is intended to help IRS better target its enforcement actions, such as audits, on non-compliant taxpayers, and minimize audits of compliant taxpayers. It should also help IRS better understand the impact of taxpayer service on compliance. IRS is developing but currently lacks long-term goals that can be used to assess performance and make budget decisions. Long-term goals and results measurement are a component of the statutory strategic planning and management framework that the Congress adopted in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. As a part of this comprehensive framework, long-term goals that are linked to annual performance measures can help guide agencies when considering organizational changes and making resource decisions. A recent Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) review conducted by OMB reported that IRS lacks long-term goals. As a result, IRS has been working to identify and establish long-term goals for all aspects of its operations for over a year. IRS officials said these goals will be finalized and provided publicly as an update to the agency’s strategic plan before May 2005.