Tax Program to Catch ‘Dropouts’

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it will start a new program that automatically prepares tax returns, based on employer records, for people who refuse to file their own.

Internal Revenue Service Assistant Commissioner William Wauben said he expects that the new program will catch about 300,000 “tax dropouts” and earn the government $2 billion. The program will cost $135 million this year and has already been tested in 55,000 cases in 1986, working with 1985 returns.