Taxation Legal News

IRS Updates Tax Gap Estimates

Washington — Internal Revenue Service officials announced today that they have updated their estimates of the Tax Year 2001 tax gap based on the National Research Program (NRP).

The updated estimate of the overall gross tax gap for Tax Year 2001 – the difference between what taxpayers should have paid and what they actually paid on a timely basis – comes to $345 billion. This figure falls at the high end of the range of $312 billion to $353 billion per year, an estimate released last March.

IRS enforcement activities, coupled with other late payments, recover about $55 billion of the tax gap, leaving a net tax gap of $290 billion for Tax Year 2001.

“The vast majority of Americans pay their taxes accurately and are shortchanged by those who don’t pay their fair share,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “The magnitude of the tax gap highlights the critical role of enforcement in keeping our system of tax administration healthy.”

The complexity of the tax law is also a significant factor in causing the tax gap, which can be seriously addressed only in the context of fundamental tax reform and simplification.

While no tax system can ever achieve 100 percent compliance, the IRS is committed to taking all reasonable steps to improve compliance through increased and better targeted enforcement and through increased taxpayer service and outreach efforts.

“Helping taxpayers better understand their obligations under the current tax law will facilitate compliance, but simplifying the tax code would have a big impact on reducing the tax gap” said Everson.

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	Did You Know?
	Form 5471 is Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Corporations Report information with respect to certain foreign corporations. A domestic partnership may have to file Form 5471 if it: Controls a foreign corporation; or Acquires, disposes of, or owns 5% or more in value of the outstanding stock of a foreign corporation; or Owns stock in a corporation that is a controlled foreign corporation for an uninterrupted period of 30 days or more during any tax year of the foreign corporation, and it owned that stock on the last day of that year.