Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Tax System Redesign, a major effort to overhaul the tax administration system, focusing on the: (1) need for the redesign; (2) progress of and future plans for the redesign; and (3) redesign's past and estimated future costs.
GAO found that: (1) redesign objectives include use of state-of-the-art computers and telecommunications technology, faster access to taxpayer information, better links of related information, and automation of manual and paper-intensive processes; (2) IRS plans to implement the redesign in phases rather than a one-time redesign of the whole system; (3) IRS plans to complete the initial phase, which includes general and specific system designs, a management plan, a transition plan, and an acquisition strategy, by February 1988; (4) IRS has obligated $71 million for the redesign for fiscal years (FY) 1982 through 1988, about $13 million less than its budget submissions to Congress since FY 1982; and (5) IRS projects that it will need over $1 billion for the redesign between FY 1989 and 1992 and $4.4 billion over the system's life.
