Property Seizure Compliance

TIGTA results of 2008 review IRS compliance with legal guidelines when conducting property seizures [Audit Report No. 2008-30-126]:

IRS has usually followed the numerous legal and internal guidelines that apply to seizures of taxpayers' property, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said in a recent audit. TIGTA based its opinion on a review of a random sample of 50 of the 683 seizures conducted from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007.

Auditors identified 25 instances in which IRS did not comply with a particular Code requirement but, according to TIGTA, this represented an error rate of only about 1%. The problems identified in the audit included the following—10 instances in which expenses and proceeds resulting from the seizure weren't properly applied to the taxpayers' accounts; five instances in which the sales of seized properties weren't properly advertised; five instances in which the correct amounts of the liabilities for which the seizures were made weren't provided on the notices of seizures sent to the taxpayers; and five instances that were redacted from the publicly released version of the audit.

The audit is located at http://treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2008reports/200830126fr.pdf .