We knew going into this tax season that budget cuts to the Internal Revenue Service would result in less help for taxpayers and a likely increase in taxpayer fraud and errors, but today IRS Commissioner John Koskinen detailed exactly how badly things went this year.
In prepared testimony [PDF] before the House Ways & Means Committee this morning, Koskinen said that budget cuts left the IRS “unable to provide adequate levels of taxpayer service,” and that “taxpayers did not get the customer service experience they deserve.”
One of the more egregious examples are so-called “courtesy disconnects,” where someone trying to contact the IRS via phone is hung-up on before they even speak to someone. This occurs when the IRS phone system is unable to deal with the flood of incoming calls and people on hold.
Koskinen said the number of disconnects so far in 2015 has already reached 8.1 million. Compare that to only 360,000 during the same time in 2014. That’s an increase of more than 22 times the number of disconnects.
And for those who weren’t cut off, the waiting times were outrageously long — upwards of 30 minutes or more.
Koskinen said these stats are “unacceptable to all of us.”
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5 comments:
and their bonuses are unacceptable to all of us :(
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Whine, whine, whine! All you needed to do was leave a message that you were looking to purchase a Clinton State Department Award and you need the address of their Foundation to send the check.
I was hold for 45 minutes before I was connected to someone. We own a small business and had a question. After explaining the question to the rep 3 times, they became agitated and hung up on me. I was livid. We get taxed to death while trying to get this business off the ground, and then get treated like crap.
Do away with the IRS
Go to their local office and take a number.
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