Taxpayer compliance research The IRS seeks to help taxpayers comply with their tax obligations voluntarily and timely. The articles and publications on this page contain research related to taxpayer compliance. Compliance measurement research, also known as the tax gap, examines how much tax is not paid voluntarily and timely. Another set of research looks at the causes of taxpayer compliance. Projections Here you will find forecasts of the number of returns to be filed for tax forms within the individual, tax-exempt, and business areas. These statistical projections are developed by the IRS Office of Research. Filing season statistics Find filing season statistics showing cumulative and comparative totals from tax return filing seasons. IRS research conference The IRS Research Conference highlights research on tax compliance and administration, and facilitates dialogue among IRS researchers, IRS and State tax administrators, tax experts from other countries, academic researchers, Federal agencies, and private sector experts. Unincorporated businesses research Based on an examination of unedited IRS administrative records (i.e., Federal tax and information returns), the State and county statistical tables in this section present financial data on individual owners of unincorporated businesses reported on the Form 1040, Schedule C, and the Form 1065.