IRS’s Comprehensive Approach to Compliance Measurement

The IRS created the National Research Program in 2000 and gave it responsibility for defining, developing and capturing data on filing, payment, and reporting compliance. This paper details how compliance measurement feeds the IRS’s strategic planning process, as well as the Tax Gap, which details the differences between what the Service collects from taxpayers and what taxpayers actually owe. We provide detailed information on each of the measures, including definitions, data sources, and how the measures interact with one another. Finally, we examine how these strategic compliance measures differ from other metrics the IRS employs in its enforcement activities.