Trump’s order to get IRS workers back into the office is a key first step in getting the agency properly focused.
In 2024 the official IRS watchdog called all 76 high-priority IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service phone numbers. Only two had a live operator at the other end:
- 56 phone numbers sent callers directly to voicemail.
- 16 phone numbers had voicemail boxes completely full so that taxpayers couldn’t even leave a message.
- Two phone numbers were not in service.
- Only two phone numbers had a live operator at the other end.
The investigation — conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) — provides more evidence of the necessity of President Trump’s recent order directing IRS employees back into the office.
The current IRS “work from home” arrangement is not working for taxpayers.
A bit of background: The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service is a part of the IRS meant to aid taxpayers who have been unable to resolve their issues via the conventional IRS process.
The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service touts itself thusly: “As an independent organization within the IRS, we protect taxpayers’ rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, help taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS, and recommend changes that will prevent the problems.”
But that mission is difficult to fulfill if they don’t pick up the phone.
TIGTA had received a tip that phone calls to the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate Service help lines were not being answered. TIGTA received the tip from a tax practitioner representing “a taxpayer who was experiencing a financial hardship that was trying to contact the TAS service for assistance.”
TIGTA’s chief of staff for inspections and evaluations Eleina Monroe appeared on the Federal News Network to share the aforementioned details:
“Two of the lines were not in service. 56 were sent directly to voicemail. We had 16 that the voicemail box was full, and 2 we were able to reach a live operator.”
That is an alarming 1.5% connection rate.
Another finding was that calls sent to the voicemail boxes were received with messages referencing the pandemic and office closures.
TIGTA noted, “we heard messages referencing COVID-19 pandemic related messages, and then for some of them, they were just saying that the office was closed or that they couldn’t take the call right now.“
The TIGTA representatives, including Monroe, were posing as taxpayers. This means that the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service was crashing and burning for actual people too.
The calls that connected to full mailboxes were just disconnected with no resolution.
The Federal News Network interviewer noted, “In some instances, people were promised a call back, but that never happened. I guess that’s what happened to the person that originally tipped off other IGs that then called you that the person never did get any resolution after some months.”
TIGTA’s Monroe said:
“When they called the IRS, it was weeks and they had not heard back anything. And then additional times that they tried calling, the voice mailbox was full. So our initial review, we tested that specific line, and then that’s what helped us to expand for all 76 lines.”
It remains unexplained why the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate Service has 76 different phone numbers. But in any case, taxpayers deserve to have their calls answered.
To make matters worse, an October 15, 2024 report found: “certain IRS functions are generally not using the results of customer satisfaction surveys to make improvements,” which makes taxpayers question whether the IRS even cares about taxpayers.
Trump’s order to get the IRS workers back into the office is a key first step.
See Also:
ATR Commends Trump’s IRS Hiring Freeze and Return to In-Person Work
