"I wasn't expecting a compliance audit this month," he said.

The main reasons for making a compliance audit are to:

Having a well-organized automated system helps eliminate some of the panic associated with a compliance audit.

The last such compliance audits were conducted a decade ago.

Initially such reviews were separate from the financial compliance audits.

The compliance audits, last done in 1988, collect data from randomly selected taxpayers within various income groups.

House Republicans cut the 1996 budget for compliance audits to $266 million, while the Senate voted no financing.

The service says that compliance audits have enabled it to aim more directly at those likely to owe extra taxes.

A number of witnesses said the compliance audits were particularly ill timed because its data would not be thoroughly analyzed until 1998.

Board members said they hoped to receive such a compliance audit within a month or even a week.