IRS Commissioner John Koskinen sent an internal email warning of poor and “unacceptable” customer service, as well as longer refund timeframes this year. The agency is blaming the poor performance on budget cuts. An annual report by another taxpayer advocate predicts that only 43% of callers to the IRS seeking answers to their questions will get through – contrasted with 87% of calls being answered in under three minutes 10 years ago. In an age where the IRS code continues to get more complicated, foreign account and asset reporting is under siege, and IRS revenue agents are pressured to increase collections it will be much harder to get answers to your questions from the IRS.
Koskinen warned that cuts in overtime and temporary staffing hours have already affected processing of manual returns (those sent in by mail), as well as those with questions or errors. IRS watchdog agencies are already rating service and response times as “poor”, and the commissioner is telling us it’s about to get worse.
What does this mean for US taxpayers with questions or complicated tax issues? If you are a business, or you have complex interests such as trust accounting or offshore accounts and assets and need assistance with tax preparation or compliance we invite you to call us for a free consultation at 866-631-3470.
