Limited Testing Showed Taxpayers May Not Receive the Service They Expect When Calling the IRS Toll-Free Telephone Lines

The Chief, Taxpayer Services should develop processes and procedures to ensure that all customer service telephone lines that place callers on hold provide the legislatively mandated identity theft and tax scams information. These processes and procedures should include verification steps to be taken as part of the annual filing season readiness confirmation processes.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services should develop processes and procedures to ensure that all customer service telephone lines continue to provide the caller with the option to listen to messages in Spanish. These processes and procedures should include verification steps to be taken as part of the annual filing season readiness confirmation processes.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should perform an assessment to determine how to avoid calls being disconnected after a taxpayer has waited on hold for two hours.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services, should analyze call disconnects to determine actions that can be taken to reduce the occurrences of the disconnects.

The Chief, Taxpayer Services should provide more context regarding the customer callback feature in press releases and public statements, so taxpayers are not expecting to be offered this option every time they call the IRS.