I have had IRS agents bypass my power of attorney because I didn’t return their phone calls the same day my office received them.
Now it seems that our favorite federal bureaucracy holds taxpayers and their professionals to a much higher standard than it holds itself. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reports that in 2009 the IRS failed to answer more than 30% of the calls made to it:
During the 2009 Filing Season, 75.7 million total dialed attempts were made to the IRS toll-free telephone lines. Through automation and assistors, the IRS answered 35.8 million (47.3%) calls during normal hours of operation. However, 22.4 million calls were not answered during normal hours of operation because the taxpayers hung up, were courtesy disconnected by the IRS, or received a busy signal.
Download the entire TIGTA report.
Observation: How many more calls will the IRS fail to answer when it is given new responsibilities under the proposed healthcare bills?
(Hat Tip: Paul Caron)
7 responses so far ↓
1 Samuel Kline // Oct 8, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Thanks for shedding light on this, Peter. Those numbers are extremely disappointing to see. The IRS is quick to give taxpayers penalties for a number of reasons, yet they are being less than helpful when concerned taxpayers make an attempt to get in touch with them. I understand that people with unfiled tax returns and those hiding property or gift taxes (among other things) are often in the wrong, but they should not be further penalized because they can’t get through to someone who can help them.
2 Peter // Oct 9, 2009 at 7:23 am
Hi Sam,
This is one example of why I think the government should clean up waste and inefficiency before it asks taxpayers for a raise.
By the way, the more inefficient, incompetent and unfair the IRS is the more money I make.
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