TIGTA Report on Improvement in Some Features of OVDP (6/21/16)

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has released a report titled Improvements Are Needed in Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Compliance and Processing Efforts (June 2, 2016 Reference Number: 2016-30-030), here.  The key highlights presented are:

WHAT TIGTA FOUND 

The IRS needs to improve its efforts to address the noncompliance of taxpayers who are denied access to or withdraw from the OVDP. TIGTA reviewed a stratified random sample of 100 taxpayers from a population of 3,182 OVDP requests that were either denied or withdrawn from the OVDP. Although 29 of these 100 taxpayers should have been potentially subject to FBAR penalties, the IRS did not initiate any compliance actions. Projecting the sample results to the population of denied or withdrawn requests, the IRS did not assess approximately $21.6 million in delinquent FBAR penalties. 

TIGTA also identified internal control weaknesses that led to delayed or incorrect processing of OVDP requests through poor communication among IRS functions involved in the OVDP. These weaknesses include the use of separate inventory controls and two separate IRS addresses for taxpayers to send correspondence, which contributed to incorrect processing of some taxpayer disclosure requests. In addition, the IRS does not have a process to determine the appropriate skill level needed for revenue agents to work OVDP request certifications. OVDP cases are not equivalent to audits of taxpayers’ returns and generally do not require as much technical analysis as traditional tax audits. 

WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED 

TIGTA recommended that the IRS: 1) review all denied or withdrawn offshore voluntary disclosure requests identified in this report for potential FBAR penalty assessments and criminal investigation; 2) develop procedures for reviewing denied and withdrawn cases for further compliance actions; 3) centrally track and control OVDP requests; 4) establish one mailing address for taxpayer correspondence; 5) ensure that employees adhere to timeliness guidelines throughout the entire OVDP process; and 6) classify OVDP certifications so that some can be worked by lower-graded revenue agents.  

IRS management agreed with all six recommendations and has taken or plans to take corrective action on five of them. Although the IRS agreed with the potential value of establishing one mailing address for taxpayer correspondence, this recommendation has been put on hold until a decision is made about the future status of the OVDP.

The report has a summary of the development of the various programs over the years since 2009 and the processing system.  The report focuses on taxpayers who were denied access to OVDP or who, having entered, withdrew or opted out.  Those persons were subject at a minimum to civil audit and some were potentially subject to criminal investigation and prosecution.  The report concludes that the IRS should have better following-through mechanisms.  Based on what it believes was an appropriate representative sample, the report suggests that there is some revenue from auditing and/or investigating those individuals.  I have not analyzed the report otherwise, but do find the following interesting.

1. Withdrawn OVDP Requests.  The sample selected included 50 taxpayers out of a total population of 781 withdrawn OVDP requests.  Only 20% of those in the sample had some form of compliance action or were included in the Streamlined Procedure.  "Of the Streamlined Procedure cases that have closed, 10 taxpayers were assessed $142,711 in penalties."  (JAT Note:  It is not clear to me what the group that withdrew and then were accepted in Streamlined Procedure is comprised of; my understanding was that those who were in OVDP up to the point of the intake letter could not withdraw and must either seek Streamlined Transition within OVDP or must opt out (different than witndrawing); I suppose it could include the class of people who had passed preclearance but not yet submitted the intake letter.)

2. Denied OVDP Request.  TIGTA reviewed 50 of 2,401 taxpayers who were denied entry to OVDP.  Only 12 of the 50 "were denied participation in the OVDP were either subjected to further criminal investigation or examination efforts, or were deceased."  Then, these is some detail behind the 34 (68 percent) of taxpayers in the sample.  (JAT Comment:  I have to say that I have had only taxpayer who failed preclearance because he had been scheduled for NRP audit; he ultimately got the OVDP result without formally being in the program.)

3. Recommendation to Review Denied or Withdrawn Requests. TIGTA recommended that the LB&I Division review all denied or withdrawn requests for FBAR penalty assessments and possible referral to CI.  In the Management's Response the IRS agreed and had technical specialists review all withdrawn and denied requests, with follow up indicated for 17.  The IRS disagreed with the revenue potential from such follow-throughs.

4. Recommendation for Immediate Review of Denied or Withdrawn Requests  TIGTA recommended (Recommendation 2) that "The Commissioner, LB&I Division, and the Chief, CI, should develop procedures to require the immediate review of any future denied or withdrawn offshore voluntary disclosure requests for further compliance actions."  IRS agreed.

5.  Other Administrative Recommendations. The balance of the recommendation dealt with processing and administration procedures.  However, I did find that, in response to a recommendation (Recommendation 4) that the IRS have one mailing address for submitting offshore voluntary disclosure requests and related documentation:

The IRS agreed with this recommendation, but is putting the recommendation on hold until a decision is made about the future status of the OVDP. While the IRS agreed with the potential value in this recommendation, at this time and in light of the nonpermanent status of the OVDP, it cannot commit the resources needed for making this change.

I infer from this that there is some current consideration being given about "the future status of the OVDP."  The IRS has always said that it could modify or withdraw the terms of OVDP at any time (although it would be expected to be prospective only and may even have a delayed effective date).