IRS service is improving, report to Congress says. But, it's still dogged by 'delays, frustration'

David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Jan 9, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

As tax filing season begins, the Internal Revenue Service will struggle to provide “the quality service that taxpayers and tax professionals need, leading to delays, frustration, and unnecessary costs,” a report from the National Taxpayer Advocate reported Wednesday.

Erin Collins, the taxpayer advocate, has warned of service problems in the past, and Congress in 2022 provided the IRS with $79.6 billion to hire more employees and improve service.

Republicans have continued trying to cut back the IRS money, rescinding $20 billion in 2023 and another $20 billion last month.

Collins, though, reported that IRS service is better than in the past.

“For the first time since I became the National Taxpayer Advocate in 2020, I can begin this report with good news: The taxpayer experience has noticeably improved,” Collins wrote.

Last year, she said, “taxpayers and practitioners experienced better service, generally received timely refunds, and faced shorter wait times to reach customer service representatives.”

While the IRS has taken what she called “major strides,” problems remain.

In the past two years, IRS has hired about 20,000 taxpayer services employees.

“These accomplishments were a welcome relief for taxpayers. However, even with the improved service, the IRS needs to do more to meet taxpayer demands,” Collins said.

Those hurt the most need the service the most. “Some of the most vulnerable taxpayers, facing issues like identity theft and economic hardship, experienced some of the worst serviced phone lines,” she said.

In California, the assessment of the IRS was similar. “Last year IRS activity significantly improved, but it really depended on the time of year, said Miklos Ringbauer, founder and president of MiklosCPA in Southern California who interacts frequently with tax preparers around the state.

“During the filing season it was for a tax practitioner to get through” on the special hotline for them, he said. He also found taxpayers were often frustrated trying to get through as well.

Getting through by phone

The report said the IRS usually gets about 100 million calls a year. But Collins found that during last year’s tax season, 32.1% of calls were answered by an employee.

The IRS got 6.2 million calls from taxpayers whose returns had been stopped by the agency’s identity theft filters. These consumers were calling the IRS to confirm their identity.

The report found the IRS answered about 20% of the calls. “This has left millions of taxpayers without the support they need,” the report said.

Ringbauer found that resolving such issues “really is a challenge. Often personal information is compromised.”

That can leave issues unresolved and can take between one to three years to resolve,” he said..

Visiting an assistance center

Consumers also use Taxpayers Assistance Centers (TAC), which are scattered throughout California.

The problem is that “not all taxpayers live near a TAC location or are available during the traditional TAC operating hours.”

The IRS has offered extended weekday and Saturday hours recently.

“This is a win for taxpayers,” Collins said. “The IRS needs to continue expanding these programs, which would provide a great benefit to more taxpayers.”

Filing a tax return

The IRS gets more than 10 million paper Form 1040 tax returns every year, and until recently, employees had to manually put the data into the IRS system.

“While the IRS has made strides toward automating return processing by scanning more than half of paper-filed returns and forms, it still has a long way to go to digitize all paper,” the report said.

Another issue: About 18 million returns filed electronically, or about 12%, were rejected last year due to potential fraud. Most are valid, but the report found taxpayers had to “jump through additional hoops to resubmit their returns electronically or submit their returns on paper.”

This was a “notable burden “for low income taxpayers eligible for certain benefits,” the report said.

_____