Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the results of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) use of levies to collect delinquent taxes through its Automated Collection System (ACS).

GAO found that: (1) IRS used levies to collect about one-half of the delinquent taxpayer accounts it sent to ACS during 1986; (2) IRS averaged about two levies per taxpayer, of which about one-half were productive; (3) tax collections totalled about $696 million from the time IRS sent the cases to ACS until mid-1988; (4) business levies produced slightly more than individual levies; and (5) individuals produced over 98 percent of the periodic payments.