Individual tax season began Monday with a larger IRS customer service team and improved technology as the organization started to use its nearly $80 billion in funding.
In order to significantly increase the number of calls answered, the IRS has hired 5,000 new customer service representatives over the past few months, according to Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury.
In the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2022 annual report, the IRS service was noted as one of the organization’s most serious issues, with only 13% of callers receiving live assistance during the 2022 filing season.
According to Adeyemo, the IRS will increase in-person assistance at Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the nation, putting the organization on track to “triple the number of Americans served.”
According to an article published by CNBC, the organization also intends to use technology to enhance customer service, such as enabling filers to reply to some IRS notices online and enabling the IRS to scan paper returns. These enhancements demonstrate how we are updating both technology and customer service to bring the IRS into the twenty-first century and how the IRS plans to use Inflation Reduction Act resources in the future.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August, gave the IRS $79.6 billion over the following ten years. Soon after, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen outlined priorities, including reducing the backlog of tax returns, enhancing customer service, modernizing technology, and hiring staff.
According to a Treasury official, the IRS intends to give Yellen a plan for the nearly $80 billion in funding in February.
After a trying time for the IRS, the 2023 tax filing season begins. Despite commitments to reduce the backlog, the agency reported that as of December 23, 1.91 million individual returns received in 2022 remained unprocessed.