IRS Says Phone Wait Times Have Dropped to 4 Minutes

By Theresa Braine, New York Daily News (TNS)

Death and taxes may both still be inevitable, but waiting to talk to the IRS soon won’t be, the agency claims.

The IRS said Monday that its average wait times for phone calls is now 4 minutes, down from 27 last year. This year’s tax filing deadline is Tuesday.

Thanks to last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS got a funding boost that enabled it to improve customer service all around for the 2023 tax season. Last year, the agency’s service marks sunk to a record low.

This season, IRS employees have answered 2 million more calls than last year and served 100,000 more taxpayers in person, the agency stated. In addition, it cleared its 2022 tax return backlog even as it digitized 80 times more paper forms than last year.

“We’re trying to improve services dramatically,” said Wally Adeyemo, Treasury’s deputy secretary at an Urban Institute event on Monday.

Also on Monday, the IRS posted a series of statements designed to ease taxpayers’ last-minute panic with helpful hints and options. That included reminding taxpayers how easy it is to file for an extension online.

It’s all in line with how newly minted IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel plans to spend the $80 billion awarded over the next 10 years under the Inflation Reduction Act.

He also pledged to make the agency more tech-savvy.

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