IRS collects more in 2007

[April 29, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service examined more corporate and individual tax returns and raked in more money from enforcement activities in the 2007 budget year, according to the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration.

But the report, made public Monday, also said the gap between enforcement revenues -- through collections and audits -- and money owed continued to grow. Enforcement efforts netted $59.2 billion, up from $48.7 billion in 2006, while gross accounts receivable stood at $290 billion, up from $271 billion.

It noted that between 2001 and 2007 the IRS removed some 7.6 million accounts with balance-due amounts totaling $31.2 billion from its collection function inventory. These cases were deemed potentially less productive and might never be worked.

Overall, the tax agency took in $2.7 trillion in fiscal year 2007, up from about $2 trillion five years earlier.

Also last year, the percentage of tax returns examined increased by almost 9 percent, although the number of revenue and tax compliance officers was down 4 percent, to just over 10,000. The staffing level is about the same as it was in 2000.

The report said the IRS examined one out of every 97 individual returns in 2007, compared with one out of every 202 in 2000. But 83 percent of those examinations in 2007 were conducted through correspondence. Only one out of every 561 returns filed faced a more rigorous face-to-face examination.

Inspections of corporate returns were up about 4 percent in 2007, although the total number of returns examined was down from 53,648 -- one out of 48 -- in 1998 to 29,664 -- one out of 75 -- in 2007.

Examinations of the returns of corporations with assets of less than $10 million increased by 12 percent, while examinations of those with assets of $250 million and greater decreased by almost 20 percent.

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On the Net:

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: http://www.tigta.gov/

[Associated Press; By JIM ABRAMS]

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