Key Takeaways

  • The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said the IRS understated wait times for taxpayers calling for help, claiming an average wait of 3 minutes while excluding roughly one-third of callers who waited an average of 17 minutes.
  • IRS management disagreed with TIGTA's recommendations to report average wait times across all phone assistance lines and to report wait times for the entire fiscal year rather than just the filing season (January 1 to April 15).
  • "Transparency in reporting the taxpayer experience is critical for the IRS to maintain public trust and tax compliance," TIGTA emphasized in its report. "Taxpayers deserve timely, courteous, and professional assistance when interacting with the IRS."

In-Depth Analysis

For years, taxpayer advocates and bipartisan lawmakers have called on the IRS to improve service to taxpayers.

TIGTA said the IRS operates a massive telephone assistance operation, answering more than 30 million calls in fiscal year 2024, 3.2 million more than the previous fiscal year.

By some metrics, the IRS has made significant progress in reducing caller wait times in recent years. TIGTA said that during the 2024 filing season, callers to the account management line waited an average of about 3 minutes, compared with 28 minutes during the same period in 2022.

However, during last year's filing season, callers to the IRS Enterprise lines—which handle about 33% of inquiries—waited an average of 17 to 19 minutes. TIGTA noted that the IRS did not report wait times for these enterprise lines, nor did it report "service levels" (a measure of the percentage of taxpayers who reach an IRS employee by phone).

"More transparency is needed in reporting IRS telephone service levels and average wait times," TIGTA said.

The IRS's telephone assistance operations and other divisions may face challenges following layoffs under the Trump administration. As of June, layoffs reduced the IRS workforce from 102,000 to fewer than 76,000 employees, with taxpayer services staff cut by 22%.

Agency-wide reductions include employees who accepted early resignation offers and will remain on the payroll until September 30. Those in "critical filing season positions" are required to work until May 15.

"With a 26% reduction in IRS staff and major tax law changes on the horizon, next year's filing season is at risk," National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said in a June report.

The Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request acknowledged the risks of massive cuts to taxpayer services and requested funding to hire 11,000 customer service representatives.

"The administration appears to have belatedly recognized the impending disaster," the Brookings Institution said in a report this month.

The IRS said that at current staffing levels, taxpayers seeking help are likely to encounter congested phone lines. "Most taxpayers will be unable to reach the IRS by phone or get answers to tax compliance-related questions," the IRS said. "Even if they get through, they will face long wait times."

The Brookings Institution said the IRS may face hiring challenges following federal workforce reductions under the Trump administration. "The mistreatment and mass firings of federal employees this year will make it extremely difficult for the agency to attract talent, and even immediate hiring would lag significantly behind schedule," Brookings said. "Although filing season may seem distant to the average taxpayer, the IRS typically hires service representatives well in advance of the next filing season because helping taxpayers file requires extensive training."

Meanwhile, the IRS rejected TIGTA's recommendations to improve phone service. "We disagree with the characterization that service level and average speed of answer metrics accurately reflect the taxpayer experience," Kenneth Corbin, head of the IRS's taxpayer services division, said in a July 11 letter to TIGTA. "We operate one of the busiest call centers in the world, managing these demands within a fixed budget while adapting to seasonality, call volume, staffing, tax law changes, weather events, and system outages," Corbin said.