TIGTA: IRS Needs to Improve Telephone Service to Taxpayers Being Audited

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today released Improved Toll-Free Telephone Services Should Make It Easier for Taxpayers to Obtain Assistance During a Correspondence Audit (2012-30-093):

The Intelligent Contact Management System is a toll-free call routing system that the Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) Division incorporated into its correspondence audit process to make it more responsive and less burdensome from the taxpayer’s point of view. However, the SB/SE Division is not consistently returning telephone calls to taxpayers and needs to take action to increase the likelihood of achieving the expected benefits of the new telephone system. ... TIGTA also found that examiners are trained and monitored to ensure they provide accurate information to taxpayers, but they do not consistently return calls when requested by or promised to taxpayers. TIGTA identified 20 calls during which the taxpayer either requested a return call or was promised one from a statistical sample of calls the SB/SE Division received from October 31 through December 9, 2011. For 14 of the 20 calls, there was no evidence that the call was returned.

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