OMB orders federal agencies to ease paperwork burden; targets IRS.

When President Clinton signed the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, he said he wanted to conquer a mountain of paperwork that was "crushing our people and wasting a lot of time and resources." While recent efforts to reduce paperwork have been laudable, they are not enough, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The OMB issued a bulletin to the executive departments and agency heads to prepare and implement a paperwork reduction plan, calling for a 25% reduction by 1998 from 1995 yearend levels.

At the end of fiscal year 1995, the total federal paperwork burden--measured in hours agencies spent complying with information collection requirements--was over 6.9 billion hours. The Internal Revenue Service was responsible for 77% of the total, or a burden of approximately 5.3 billion hours. To meet the OMB's 25% reduction goal the IRS would have to cut its paperwork burden by over 1.3 billion hours by the end of fiscal year 1998 (see graphic below).

The OMB bulletin (no. 97-03) instructs executive departments and agencies to prepare by mid-April an information streamlining plan and an information collection budget. The plan must include goals and timetables to achieve results by 1998, and the budget must include a summary of each agency's actual annual paperwork burdens and aggregate paperwork reduction goals. Agencies also must supply the OMB with data regarding compliance with OMB circular A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources.

The OMB asked the American Institute of CPAs tax division to supply administrative, regulatory and legislative proposals to reduce the taxpayer reporting burden. Other interested parties can submit proposals on paperwork burden reduction to the Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Washington, D.C. 20503.