This testimony examines the administration's fiscal year 1996 budget
request for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the status of the
1995 filing season. GAO discusses four main issues--the status of IRS'
Tax Modernization program, IRS' efforts to control tax refund fraud, the
steps that might be taken to make the earned income credit easier to
administer and less susceptible to fraud, and the ability of taxpayers
to reach IRS by telephone.