NCJ Number
80085
Date Published
1981
Length
91 pages
Annotation
This General Accounting Office (GAO) report discusses the need to restructure the existing time-consuming and duplicative legal review process for criminal tax cases.
Abstract
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) expends extensive resources investigating many criminal tax cases which do not lead to prosecutive recommendations or convictions. While this is understandable and unavoidable to some extent, readily available legal assistance during investigations could reduce those resource expenditures and improve IRS' productivity. The existing legal review process for criminal tax cases consists almost entirely of sequential, postinvestigative reviews by three separate groups of Government attorneys. GAO recommends several alternatives to streamline the process, all of which call for partial or complete elimination of one of the three current review levels. It proposes that any revised process (1) provide a means through which IRS's Criminal Investigation Division can obtain timely legal assistance during its investigations, (2) improve timeliness and eliminate any unnecessary duplication and costs, (3) ensure that criminal tax cases receive a high-quality, independent legal review before they are prosecuted, and (4) safeguard the legal rights of taxpayers. Both IRS and Justice agreed that the existing process needs to be streamlined but were unable to develop a mutually agreeable approach. Recognizing that the responsibility for ensuring the legal quality of criminal tax cases rests primarily with the Attorney General, GAO sees no need for IRS to duplicate Justice Department legal review functions. IRS's principal responsibility is to investigate criminal tax violations and recommend prosecution. GAO believes, therefore, that the most appropriate role for IRS attorneys is to provide legal assistance to its Criminal Investigation Division during investigations, as needed. Agency comments, footnotes, a list of abbreviations, and appended letters are provided. (Author summary modified)