No significant problems arise during 2006 tax filing season, AICPA tells Congress.

No significant problems have arisen during the 2006 tax filing season, the AICPA told Congress last month as the end of the tax filing season approached. Tax practitioners are "generally pleased" with the IRS's performance this year, Tom Purcell, chair of the AICPA's Tax Executive Committee, testified at a hearing by the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight.

Purcell highlighted the benefits of tax simplification in his testimony stressing that it "will improve future filing seasons through a reduction in tax return errors and taxpayer susceptibility to abusive tax shelters." Purcell also addressed a range of other topics in his testimony, as the hearing focused not only on the tax filing season, but also on the IRS's budget for 2007 and tax administration issues.

The IRS's fiscal year 2007 budget should be fully funded, Purcell said, to allow the IRS "to efficiently and effectively administer the tax laws and collect taxes." With respect to a funding cut for the IRS's Business Systems Modernization program, he said the AICPA cannot easily determine "whether this size level of a cut is prudent." However, Purcell said it is "critical for Congress to provide the Service with the appropriate funding levels for the modernization effort."

Achieving e-filing goals offers administrative efficiencies and budgetary savings to the IRS and benefits for taxpayers, he said. Purcell testified that during this tax filing season, me AICPA was closely consulting with the IRS on implementation of the mandatory e-file program that requires large corporations and tax...