The Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) was developed by the Large Business and
International (LB&I) Division to help improve the federal tax compliance of large corporate
taxpayers. Real-time issue resolution tools and techniques are available for taxpayers to use.
With this program, the IRS and taxpayer work together to achieve tax compliance by
resolving any issues prior to the taxpayer filing the tax return. This seems like a great
program that has many benefits for large corporate taxpayers who may have very complex
tax situations. The program has benefits for both the taxpayer and the IRS as issues are
resolved prior to the tax return being filed, allows real-time review of transactions, provides
resources, and saves time for both the IRS and taxpayers, reduces the need for taxpayers to
amend tax returns, and provides earlier identification of new and potentially emerging
issues.
With all these benefits, I absolutely believe this program is very beneficial to many large
corporate organizations and taxpayers would be very sad to see it be removed. I could see
many large corporations paying a fee in order to continue using this program, which could
help the IRS with the budget cuts they are considering and show this program is valuable.
With this program, taxpayers can save time by resolving issues prior to filing their tax return
and allowing the IRS to achieve an acceptable level of assurance regarding the accuracy of
the taxpayer’s filed tax return. This program also helps the IRS to substantially shorten the
length of the post filing examination, which saves them time and money. I believe this
program is very beneficial to large corporations and if the IRS needs to show that it is a
valuable program, begin offering the service at a fee and see if companies still sign up to
participate.
The person that completed many of the tasks has left the company and they were not very
good at documenting anything. I think that many companies, large and small would be very
interested in participating as this would take a great deal of pressure off them. According to
the eligibility of the program, participates must follow US GAAP in completing their
financials. I understand that this would most often be for foreign owned companies, but it
would be a great way to have more companies follow one specific set of rules. I feel that
many smaller companies and individuals would find this program beneficial as well.
Especially currently of unethical behaviour from some tax and financial professionals. The
peace of mind for a small company or individual that had maybe had a run in with someone
that made errors and cost them money might be worth paying a small fee.
I think this program could also be able to pay for itself if they only charged a small
percentage fee based on either a company’s assets or an individuals adjusted gross income.
An individual that has an adjusted gross income over a million a year, may be okay with
paying a couple thousand in order to avoid a lengthy audit 3 years down the road. I feel the
company I work for would be interested in this program but have less than $10 million in
assets. I think they would be willing to pay a few thousand a year if it meant saving us time
and headaches later. As I stated earlier, we had an individual leave us and he has created a
very big mess in the short time he worked there. He did not have keep back up for journal
entries, sent out tax forms and did not send them certified and 'forgot' to pay the monthly
state payroll taxes, just to name a few. We have had to pay fines for these items being late,
but had we been able to audit quarterly, we may have been able to keep ahead of some of
these issues. The large corporations would be willing to pay a higher fee if it meant their
accounting department was not tied up with finding audit information for months at a time.
IRS.gov. Aug 4, 2023. CAP Eligibility and Suitability Criteria. Retrieved
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/cap-eligibility-and-suitability-criteria
Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) -
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/compliance-assurance-process-cap-
frequently-asked-questions-faqs
