Report of Independent Accountants
August 31, 2000
To the Board of Trustees of
The American Funds Tax-Exempt Series I
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of The
American Funds Tax-Exempt Series I (the "Trust") for the year ended July
31, 2000, we considered its internal control, including control activities
for safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures
for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements and
to comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on
internal control.
The management of the Trust is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments
by management are required to assess the expected benefits and related costs
of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to
the entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external
purposes that are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted
accounting principles. Those control activities include the safeguarding
of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use of disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal
control to future periods is subject to the risk that it may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness
of the design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design or
operation of one or more of the internal control components does not
reduce to a relatively low level the risk that misstatements caused by
errors or fraud in amounts that would be material in relation to the
financial statements being audited may occur and not be detected within a
timely period by employees in the normal course of performing their assigned
functions. However, we noted no matters involving internal control and
its operation, including controls for safeguarding securities, that we
consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of July 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management
and the Board of Trustees of the Trust and the Securities and Exchange
Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone
other than these specified parties.
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP
Los Angeles, California
