Summary

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO determined what options exist, without a legislative change, to help financial institutions provide correct names and taxpayer identification numbers (TIN) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

GAO found that: (1) while payors were not required to obtain correct names, there were many incorrect identification numbers listed due to name mismatches in IRS or social security files; (2) IRS should encourage payors to provide more information about payee name changes; (3) IRS could reduce the number of mismatches by expanding plans to correct names on income tax returns; and (4) IRS should tell payors when there is no current record of particular TIN in IRS or social security files.