The IRS will use some of the $80 billion windfall it will receive from President Biden’s massive climate, spending and tax bill to hire people to answer phone calls from taxpayers during the 2023 tax filing season.
The agency announced this week that the move will improve its level of service as it is still sorting through a backlog from the 2021 return season.
Natasha Sarin, the Treasury Department official charged with helping the IRS enact the changes, told the media that the agency is still figuring out how many people it will hire to answer telephones.
About 40% of the IRS’ 79,0000 employees work in taxpayer service, including answering telephones.
Ms. Sarin said the IRS will begin spending $3.2 billion out of the $80 billion it received through Mr. Biden’s massive climate, tax and health care bill, which he signed into law earlier this month.
The bill doles out funds to the IRS so it can hire 87,000 new employees to chase down tax cheats. The Biden administration says the new employees can help recover $127 billion from tax scofflaws, thus generating more funds for the federal government.
Improving customer service has been a key goal, the IRS has stated. During the most recent tax filing season, the agency received roughly 73 million calls from taxpayers asking for help or guidance. Only about 10% of those calls reached an IRS employee, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s annual report. The National Taxpayer Advocate is an independent agency within the IRS.
The report found that the IRS’ Taxpayer Protection Program had particularly poor service. Taxpayers whose returns were flagged for potential identity theft were instructed to call the TPP line to verify their identity. Only 3.5% of those calls reached an employee, the report found.
The failure to reach an IRS employee leads to delays in issuing refunds and other services, the report said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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