Examining IRS Customer Service Challenges

PURPOSE:

• To examine the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) failure to efficiently direct available resources to customer service and what might be done to improve it.

BACKGROUND:

• IRS’s customer service has been poor over the last several tax seasons, which IRS frequently attributes to lack of resources.
• Recent reports by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and the Taxpayer Advocate point out several areas where IRS could better direct its resources to customer service.
• The Taxpayer Advocate’s 2016 annual report stressed the need to provide better face-to-face and telephone service to taxpayers, while TIGTA found that IRS has disproportionately decreased funding for telephone service.