Applying Agreed-Upon Procedures: Highway Trust Fund Excise Taxes

GAO-08-202R November 2, 2007
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Summary

We have performed the procedures contained in the enclosure to this report, which we agreed to perform and with which the Department of Trasnportation (DOT) concurred, solely to assist your office in ascertaining whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007, is supported by the underlying records. As agreed with your office, we evaluated fiscal year 2007 activity affecting distributions to the HTF. In performing the agreed-upon procedures, we conducted our work in accordance with U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards, which incorporate financial audit and attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. These standards also provide guidance for performing and reporting the results of agreed-upon procedures. The adequacy of the procedures to meet your objectives is your responsibility, and we make no representation in that respect. The procedures we agreed to perform were related to (1) transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the HTF, (2) the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly HTF receipt certifications, (3) the Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service adjustments to the HTF during fiscal year 2007, (4) the Department of the Treasury's Office of Tax Analysis's (OTA) process for estimating excise tax amounts to be distributed to the HTF for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2007, and other procedures related to (5) adjustments to the HTF for tax on kerosene used in aviation, (6) the net amount of fiscal year 2007 excise taxes distributed to the HTF, and (7) transactions that represent total IRS tax revenue receipts and refunds.

We were not engaged to perform, and did not perform, an audit, the objective of which would have been the expression of an opinion on the amount of net excise taxes distributed to the HTF. Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion. Had we performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you. We completed the agreed-upon procedures on October 24, 2007.