IRS says it expects to improve taxpayer services this filing season
by Lester Bahr, CPA on 01/15/16
This income tax filing season will officially open on January 19, 2016 as that is the first date in which IRS will begin accepting tax returns.
For the first time in six years, IRS has received a significant amount of additional funding in the amount of $290 million which it says will be used to improve taxpayer services. Mostly, this will come from being able to hire up to 1,000 additional customer service representatives meaning that its phone service levels should improve.
This should be an improvement over the situation of the past year. In fact, a report recently released by the Government Accountability Office found the IRS had provided the lowest level of telephone service in fiscal year 2015 compared to prior years. Only 38 percent of callers who wanted to speak with an IRS representative were actually able to reach one.
Lester Bahr, CPA
