The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report that identifies several tax expenditure programs that contribute to community development, several of which overlap with at least one other tax expenditure program in terms of the areas or activities funded. The report finds that such overlap often results in fragmented program management and other administrative burdens. Specifically, the report:

  • Identifies community development tax expenditures and potential overlap and interactions among them;
  • Assesses the data and performance measures available and used to assess their performance; and
  • Determines what previous studies have found about selected tax expenditures’ performance.

The report also recommends that Congress provide additional guidance on whether community development should be among the administration’s long-term crosscutting priority goals, stress the need for evaluations, and focus attention on addressing community development tax expenditure performance issues through its oversight activities.

Click here to read the GAO report