E-Filing Tax Returns: Penalty Authority and Digitizing More Paper Return Data Could Increase Benefits

Citation
Government Accountability Office, E-Filing Tax Returns: Penalty Authority and Digitizing More Paper Return Data Could Increase Benefits (GAO-12-33) (Oct. 5, 2011) (full-text).

Overview
The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) goal is to receive 80% of all major types of tax returns electronically by 2012. Legislation passed in November 2009 supports the 80% goal for individual income tax returns by requiring tax return preparers who file more than 10 individual returns per year to file them electronically, or e-file. GAO was asked to review the IRS's implementation of this e-file mandate. Specifically, GAO (1) described e-file rates and preparers' experiences implementing the mandate, (2) assessed IRS's plans to enforce the mandate, (3) assessed IRS's analysis of options for digitizing more data from paper returns, and (4) determined whether there are any tax forms IRS cannot accept electronically and assessed IRS's plans for adding them to the e-file system.