Many IRS Employees Poorly Versed In Tax Law, Study Finds

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

05 September 2003

An investigation conducted by the Treasury Department into the accuracy of information given by staff at IRS tax help centers has found that employees gave correct answers to only 57% of questions asked on tax law, reports Smartpros accounting.

According to the findings of the investigation, IRS employees supplied complete and accurate information in 45% of cases, and accurate but incomplete answers to 12% of questions. Also, the Treasury investigators found that staff told questioners to research their queries in IRS literature in 12% of cases, despite this being a practice banned by the Revenue.

In total, 28% of questions received an incorrect answer and IRS staff most commonly fell down on questions concerning the earned income tax credit, education credits and dependants. This has led the investigators to conclude that as many as 500,000 taxpayers that used tax help centers in the duration of the research (conducted between July and December 2002) could have received inaccurate information on questions of tax law.

The IRS has disputed the figures however, claiming the accuracy rate on questions of tax law is actually 67%, though they arrived at this figure by discarding instances where taxpayers were asked to refer to IRS publications. Nevertheless, Henry O. Lamar, the commissioner responsible for individual tax returns, conceded "that an accuracy rate of 67 percent for tax law service is inadequate." The Revenue has set a target of an 85% accuracy rate by next year.

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