About the Data Internal Revenue Service AIMS Data

Much of the recent data reflected here was obtained by TRAC after a lengthy six-year FOIA battle with the IRS. This battle involved hundreds of adminstrative requests and appeals and a series of federal district court actions. The IRS is still challenging in the federal court of appeals one aspect of the district court's ruling requiring disclosure of anonymous statistics. For further details see TRAC's FOIA section The Internal Revenue Service maintains an internal management database to track tax audits called the Audit Information Management System or AIMS. This database is the primary source used to generate performance statistics for use by IRS officials for managing the Service’s examination programs on the conduct and results from IRS audits. It is also a source used directly (as well as via the IRS's Enforcement Revenue Information System) to prepare reports for Congress and Administration offices for budget and legislative purposes. Finally, it is the source used to produce figures for publication and distribution to the public on IRS audits. The key numerical data historically tracked by AIMS consists of: (a) the number of audits, (b) the hours spent by IRS auditors, (c) the additional taxes recommended after audit, (d) the number of audits where no change was recommended, and (e) the number of hours spent by IRS auditors on these no change examinations. The AIMS system has existed for many decades. (For the description of the characteristics of earlier versions of AIMS see history.) But with the recent re-organization of the IRS following the Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, a number of significant changes have taken place in how it is organized. Driving this change has been the underlying change in IRS from a structure which reflects geographically-based districts into divisions with areas and territories. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University Copyright 2002, 2010