Summary

The U.S. government is the world's largest creator, collector, distributor, and user of information. From filing income tax returns to applying for food stamps, the American citizen is faced with a government form. In addition, thousands of businesses, nonprofit groups, and state and local governments fill out lengthy applications to receive federal benefits or to remain eligible as government contractors. During 1992, Americans spent nearly 6.6 billion hours filling out forms, answering survey questions, and compiling records for the federal government--the equivalent of hiring more than 3 million full-time workers annually to complete paperwork. GAO estimates that the federal paperwork burden, as measured in hours, increased 261 percent between 1987 and 1992, most of which is due to a Treasury Department reassessment of the time it spends processing paperwork, especially tax-related reporting and filing requirements at the Internal Revenue Service. This report discusses in detail (1) how the paperwork burden has changed over time, (2) what factors account for the observed change, (3) whether some groups have been affected differently, and (4) whether the reasons for information collection have changed.

GAO found that: (1) between 1987 and 1992, the number of paperwork burden hours increased by 261 percent; (2) the increases in paperwork burden reflect Treasury's reclassification and reestimation of burden hours, new paperwork requirements, and changes in new, ongoing, and terminated collections; (3) the actual increase in paperwork is due to changes in population size and revisions to collection instruments; (4) in 1991, the paperwork burden for estimated income taxes and business partnerships decreased due to revisions in forms; (5) information collection requirements increased significantly between 1987 and 1992; and (6) an evaluation of the totality of paperwork burden should include whether the data collected are reliable, total paperwork burden is underestimated, costs of collecting data is valuable, and data collected actually benefit the public.