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5 United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC June 13, 2008 The Honorable Max Baucus Chairman The Honorable Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member Committee on Finance United States Senate The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must pursue collection of unpaid tax debt to help ensure compliance and confidence in the tax system and address the taxfiscal year Data on the inventory of unpaid assessments in fiscal years 2002 through 2007, including more details on how IRS classified the debt, are in appendix IV. 12 These totals, as reported in IRS s annual data book, include the three phases of the collection process. IRS also reports on enforcement revenue collected, which is a higher number that includes dollars from the collection process and other enforcement actions, such as examinations. Page 12

17 Figure 3: Unpaid Tax Debt Inventory: Percentages Categorized as Potentially Collectible and Not Potentially Collectible at the Ends of Fiscal Years Percentage Fiscal year Percentage of unpaid taxes potentially collectible Percentage of unpaid taxes not potentially collectible Source: IRS data. Note: Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding. According to IRS,