A new federal report says the Internal Revenue Service has done a good job of increasing its efforts to educate churches and charities about federal law that bans political-campaign activity by such groups, and that it has improved the way it handles allegations of wrongdoing.

But the report said the tax agency needs to do more “to ensure that tax-exempt organizations receive timely notification that they might be involved in prohibited political activity” and to clarify to IRS employees the criteria it uses to evaluate cases through its Political Activities Compliance Initiative.

“These actions should increase the likelihood that tax-exempt organizations will stop the prohibited activities before the relevant election and that tax-exempt organization activities will be evaluated consistently and fairly,” said the report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The report said that the IRS has already agreed with its findings and completed “several corrective actions.”

Federal law says that churches and charities may not “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of any statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”