Taxpayer Advocate Again Pleads for Bigger IRS Budget to Boost Customer Service

Government Executive: Despite a recent budget hike to implement the new tax law, the Internal Revenue Service “doesn’t have enough employees to answer the phones, to conduct outreach and education, or to provide basic taxpayer service,” the National Taxpayer Advocate said in her latest report.

The 2018 filing season—in which the tax agency processed 130.5 million returns, up 1.3 percent from the previous year—did bring a small decline in hold times for taxpayer calls, from 6.5 minutes in 2017 to 5.1 minutes in 2018, Nina Olson wrote in her summary.

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