Until more types of federal payments are available, the current continuous levy program results in unequal treatment of delinquent taxpayers depending on whether their federal payments are made by FMS on behalf of other agencies or directly by the agencies themselves. Delinquent taxpayers receiving payments from FMS generally are subject to the continuous levy program; those receiving payments directly from federal agencies are not and IRS is limited to using its general levy authority in order to levy some of these non-FMS payments. Although practical issues may impede achieving similar treatment of all delinquent taxpayers receiving federal payments, progress could be made and substantial additional revenues could be collected—in fairness to those who properly pay their taxes. Similar plans do not exist, however, for including all vendor payments from USPS, DOD, and CMS in the continuous levy program. Discussions among FMS, IRS, and the agencies have the potential to ensure that all of these payments are included in the continuous levy program as soon as practical, and for possibly accelerating the inclusion of certain types or categories of vendor payments. Further, the effectiveness of the current continuous levy program and its expansion to other payments could be enhanced if IRS were to begin sharing the different names that businesses use for tax purposes with FMS. DOD and CMS have available data that could be shared with IRS to increase IRS’ ability to identify those taxpayers’ whose federal payments could be practically and effectively levied under the general levy program. Key contributors to this work are listed in appendix V.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Our objectives in this report were to (1) determine the number of delinquent taxpayers receiving federal payments from the United States Postal Service (USPS), Department of Defense (DOD), and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that would be affected and the tax debt that might be recovered if they were to be included in the continuous levy program; (2) determine whether these types of payments could be included in the continuous levy program and the timeframes for doing so; and (3) identify other actions that could be taken to enhance IRS’ ability to manually levy federal payments to delinquent individuals and businesses that are not currently included in the continuous levy program.
What GAO Found

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeks to apply the law fairly to all taxpayers. Under the continuous levy program, however, taxpayers who receive federal payments are treated differently depending on whether the payments are made by the Federal Management Service (FMS) on behalf of other agencies or directly by the agencies themselves. Delinquent taxpayers receiving payments from FMS generally are subject to continuous levy, while those receiving payments directly from federal agencies are not. Although it may prove impractical to treat similarly all delinquent taxpayers who receive federal payments, progress--and substantial additional revenues--could be achieved in this area. FMS plans to include salaries at the U.S. Postal Service and salaries and retirement payments at the Defense Department (DOD) in the continuous levy program. There are similar plans to include all vendor payments from the Postal Service, DOD, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Discussions among FMS, IRS, and the agencies could ensure that all of these payments all included in the continuous levy program as soon as possible. These discussions could also speed the inclusion of some categories of vendor payments. The continuous levy program could also benefit if IRS were to begin sharing with FMS the different names that businesses use for tax purposes--an approach that IRS already uses for individual taxpayers in the program. In the meantime, until the program is expanded to include more direct payments from agencies, IRS could take steps to ensure that all delinquent taxpayers receiving payments are subject to potential collection activity. DOD and CMS have data on hand that they could share with IRS to strengthen IRS' ability to identify taxpayers whose federal payments could be levied under the program.