Watchdog Says IRS Could Do Better Reporting Telephone Service And Wait Times

Forbes

19 hours ago

If you've ever called the IRS, you know that getting through on the phone can be a real challenge. A recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that it's not in your head—the data bears out that there is room for improvement. getty
If you've ever called the IRS, you know that getting through on the phone can be a real challenge. A recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) evaluated the IRS's efforts to improve telephone access and reduce taxpayer wait times when calling for assistance. Their findings? It's not in your head—the data bears out that there is room for improvement and that the IRS could make that more clear in its reporting.
According to TIGTA, IRS telephone assistors answered over 30 million calls in fiscal year 2024 on its toll-free and international lines. When taxpayers call the IRS, they can get answers to federal tax questions, order tax forms, listen to pre-recorded messages on various tax topics, obtaining updates on refund status, and obtain more information about letters or notices. However, taxpayers who can't get through on the phone in a reasonable time may get frustrated and hang up without a resolution.
In August 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), providing approximately $80 billion in IRA funding to be used to improve taxpayer services, modernization, and enforcement. A key initiative of the IRA was to improve the level of service (LOS) that taxpayers receive when calling IRS telephone lines.
The LOS refers to how efficiently telephone systems manage incoming calls, specifically measuring how quickly a caller can reach a representative. A high LOS indicates effective call handling, while a low LOS reflects longer wait times. According to the IRS, the LOS measures the ability of a taxpayer to reach a telephone assistor when requested.
For the 2022 tax filing season, the IRS reported a 15% LOS and an average wait time of 28 minutes. For the following tax filing season, the Treasury Secretary set an expectation that the IRS would provide an 85% LOS and reduce average wait times to less than 15 minutes. In April 2023, the IRS reported that it had achieved that LOS goal and reported average wait times of four minutes.
For the 2024 tax filing season, the Treasury Secretary again set a goal of achieving an 85% LOS and average wait times of less than five minutes. The IRS reported that it achieved both of those goals, likely thanks to the addition of 5,000 new telephone assistors.
As of March 2025, Congress had reduced the available IRA funding awarded to the IRS to just $37.6 billion (down from the initial $80 billion over ten years). Personnel cuts happened at the IRS, too, with nearly a quarter of the IRS workforce leaving or planning to leave by September. Included in that number? Approximately 23% of those in customer service representative positions. However, employees who planned to separate but worked in 'critical filing season positions' were required to work until at least May 15, 2025. That meant good news for taxpayers—as of March 1, 2025, the IRS reported similar levels of service for the 2025 filing season as it had for the 2024 filing season. TIGTA Findings On IRS Phone Service
For the 2024 tax filing season, the IRS reported an LOS of 88% and wait times averaging three minutes. However, that only covered calls made to 33 Accounts Management (AM) telephone lines during the tax filing season. AM assistors are responsible for handling taxpayer inquiries and issues related to tax accounts. These lines handled about two-thirds of all calls answered by IRS assistors.
The IRS separately monitors an Enterprise LOS, which includes 27 telephone lines from other IRS units in addition to the 33 AM telephone lines. These 27 lines handled about one-third of all calls answered by IRS telephone assistors.
The reported average wait time calculation from the IRS only includes the 33 AM telephone lines. According to IRS data, the average wait times for the other lines were significantly longer than three minutes, averaging between 17 and 19 minutes during the 2024 tax filing season.
TIGTA says millions of taxpayers are unable to obtain assistance from the IRS on the telephone due to technical difficulties, busy telephone lines, and other issues—an issue that has plagued taxpayers for years. In November 2023, TIGTA reported that 21 telephone lines that offered live assistance placed test callers on hold for more than 30 minutes and never connected them to a telephone assistor before the test callers terminated the call. In February 2025, TIGTA issued a follow-up report noting that their call evaluators experienced wait times of 30 minutes or more on 18 telephone lines.
Because of the high demand for service during the tax filing season, the IRS temporarily reassigns employees from other job responsibilities to answer calls—this happens every year. This boost has a side effect of helping to improve the average reported wait time and LOS during the tax filing season. However, similar telephone service measures for the entire year are not widely reported and vary considerably.
For example, the LOS for AM ranged from a low of 48% in June 2024 to a high of 92% in January 2024. Similarly, the Enterprise LOS ranged from a low of 45% in June 2024 to a high of 77% in February 2024. What TIGTA Recommended (IRS Issued A Polite No Thank You)
TIGTA recommended the IRS should update its metrics to reflect a wider range of data—including those average wait times outside of the tax filing season. That's because, TIGTA notes, if a taxpayer anticipates spending an average of three minutes on the phone, they may become frustrated and hang up as the wait time increases. Transparency, TIGTA maintains, is critical for the IRS to maintain public confidence and compliance with the tax laws.
(According to Joint Operations Center management, Enterprise LOS and average wait times are monitored throughout the year, but they are not included with the AM LOS and average wait times that are reported.)
TIGTA isn't alone in its assessment. The National Taxpayer Advocate recently reported that the AM LOS is 'materially misleading' to stakeholders and that 'the IRS should replace its benchmark 'Level of Service' performance measure for telephone service, as it does not reflect the taxpayer experience, and it produces inappropriate priorities and a misallocation of resources.'
The IRS disagreed with TIGTA's recommendations, stating, among other things, that including wait times for telephone lines outside the main helpline, would be confusing to the public. TIGTA
TIGTA was established in January 1999 by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 to provide independent oversight of IRS activities. Today, TIGTA provides audit, investigative, and evaluation services to promote integrity, efficiency, and economy in the administration of the nation's tax system. While TIGTA sits organizationally within the Department of the Treasury and reports to the Secretary of the Treasury and Congress, the agency is considered to be independent.
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