Someone should write a country song about trying to call the IRS. I called the IRS today. I called three times before I could even wait on hold. The first two times, I got a message that the phone lines were too busy and I needed to call back. The third time was a charm, and I sat on hold for hours waiting to reach an agent. When I finally reached an agent, she informed me even though I was telling her my client sent a letter dated August 12, 2021, and even though I could prove the letter was delivered, the IRS system did not yet reflect having received the mail. Accordingly, the IRS computers think my client is ignoring IRS notices, and is being subject to enforced collection (an IRS levy) for the failure to file certain information reporting forms (which my client did file) and there was very little she could do about it because the amount at issue was so high and she didn’t have authority to take the action I wanted her to take. I don’t blame this agent. She was kind, helpful, attentive, apologetic and sympathetic to the taxpayer. We eventually came up with a creative solution that will work as a band-aid until someone can actually look at my letter I sent back in August proving the taxpayer doesn’t actually owe this penalty at all. I don’t blame Commissioner Rettig or the IRS in general. I blame Congress. Without the funding the IRS desperately needs, the one federal government agency that every single adult American must interact with is unable to serve the American people. Last week, the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins (NTA) released her annual report to Congress, warning that the IRS is in crisis. She also rightly pointed out that “IRS leadership and workforce deserve considerable credit for their accomplishments,” even in the face of the abysmal level of service – or lack thereof – that many Americans and tax professionals are experiences. How can these two seemingly incongruent concepts both be true? Because Congress has failed to adequately fund the IRS.
Echoing the experience I had today, the National Taxpayer Advocate pointed out that the IRS telephone service in 2021 was “the worst it has ever been.” In 2021, “the IRS received about 282 million telephone calls. Customer service representatives only answered about 32 million, or 11 percent, of those calls.” While the NTA’s report concluded that hold times averaged 23 minutes, I find that incredibly hard to believe. As a tax practitioner, I routinely wait on hold for hours to reach a representative, and sometimes after waiting on hold for hours, a message that the call volume is too high will come on, and disconnect the call.
I am paid by clients who can afford to have me call the IRS on their behalf, or I do it for free for my pro bono clients. But during the hours when I wait on hold, I think about the hundreds of millions of Americans who can’t afford to pay someone like me to advocate for them with the IRS, who don’t know enough to ask for someone like me to help them pro bono, and don’t have hours to sit on hold waiting for an answer to a tax question.
Don’t all Americans – who are, after all, at risk of going to prison for filing an incorrect tax return – deserve to have the IRS pick up the phone and answer their tax questions correctly when they call? After all, the number one goal of the IRS’s Fiscal Year 2021 Progress update is to “Empower and enable all taxpayers to meet their tax obligations.” The IRS is allocated a specific amount of money by Congress to answer the phone. And no matter how much the call volume increases, IRS executives cannot shift resources from one area to another to answer more calls. You read that right. Even the Commissioner of the IRS cannot, in his judgment, and seeing call volume increase over 200%, shift more IRS employees to answer the phone outside of what Congress has specifically allocated in the budget.
Here’s how the IRS described call volume in 2021:
Filing Season Telephone Operations Major tax pandemic-related changes passed by Congress resulted in additional, unplanned demand for our toll-free phone lines. Through May 22, 2021, the individual taxpayer telephone demand was 24 million, 456% higher than the prior year. Our business taxpayer accounts demand was 3.1 million, 244% higher than the prior year. The demand for taxpayers calling to schedule appointments for our Taxpayer Assistance Centers was 1.6 million above the same period last year and the disconnects were 2,000% of the prior year at 1.8 million compared to 86,000.
And when federal disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, and fires hit Americans, a switch flips at the IRS call centers. Since 2012, when Americans call FEMA for disaster relief, they are often speaking with IRS call center employees. When Commissioner Charles Rettig asked Congress for an increase in funding last November, it was for good reason. And while I’ve been clear I disagree with significant portions of the Build Back Better Act (retroactively repealing important taxpayer protections to start), funding the IRS is critical.
Whether you are crossing your fingers for Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax to become law or suffering sleepless nights because you falsely obtained PPP loans, a properly funded, well-functioning IRS is critical. The IRS’s core mission is to “deliver” a successful filing season to Americans. But the IRS must do much more than that. The IRS delivered stimulus payments to Americans throughout the pandemic. The IRS delivered monthly Advance Child Tax Credits. And let’s not forget the IRS’s other critical mission, which is to encourage voluntary compliance with our tax system by going after those who do intentionally underpay their taxes.
We cannot expect a government agency to do more with less to this degree year after year after year. Every day, I see the ways in which small businesses suffer due to lack of IRS funding, whether it be the lack of training for agents to determine what penalties should be assessed and what should not, lack of ability to open and process mail in a timely manner, and lack of ability to answer the phone.
Please don’t mistake this article for an IRS love letter. I represent taxpayers against the IRS and I disagree with the positions that the IRS takes in examinations and litigation for a living. But when an agency that all adult Americans are required by law to interact with is sorely deprived of funding and asked to do more with less year after year after year, we should all demand our elected representatives sit up, take notice, and do something about it.