The Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) program serves for large companies with the intention to conduct real-time compliance reviews to solve tax issues before the tax return is filled. In 2011, the program was announced to be made permanent and expanded to a three-phase process including Pre-CAP and Compliance Maintenance phases (Internal Revenue Service, 2018a). With tax issues be solved before filling, companies would have less burden when it comes to the post-filling examinations (Internal Revenue Service, 2011).
From my personal perspective, I believe that the CAP program is benefitial to taxpayers. The CAP program is suggested to efficiently identify and resolve tax issues with compliance, increasing cooperation and transparency between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and large companies, as well as reducing the burden of both sides (Internal Revenue Service, 2018b). The whole program, in addition to allowing real-time audit for taxpayers, highlights the transparency of taxpayers to the IRS and the cooperation between two sides.
The IRS can monetize the program through quantifying the benefits acquired by the CAP program compared with previous relevant program that requires companies to wait for two or three years before being audited. Furthermore, since the IRS also benefits from the program for it requires transparency and cooperation between the taxpayers and the IRS, which leads to less burden and higher efficiency of both sides, the benefits obtained by the IRS should also be quantified. To be specific, the CAP provides significant benefits to taxpayers and the IRS. For instance, the program could decrease the overall cycle time, and encourage taxpayers to be transparent to the IRS voluntary, which ensures the save of time and energy for both taxpayers and the IRS. Furthermore, the CAP program is supposed to enhance corporate governance and accountability for taxpayers involved in the program. Besides, with the opportunity to identify tax issues earlier, taxpayers are more likely to solve these issues and conduct risk management as earlier (Internal Revenue Service, 2018c).
