Priority Phone Service Created for Correspondence Audits

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From the IRS

The IRS has launched a new toll-free phone service for tax professionals to use when responding to correspondence examination telephone calls or letters. The IRS calls the new service the Practitioner Priority Service (PPS). Practitioners can call a toll-free number (866-860-4259) and select the correspondence examination option (option 7).

Additional prompts, based on the phone number on the letter the tax professional is calling about, direct the call to either the Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) examination line or the Wage & Investment (W&I) examination line. PPS employees will handle up to five clients per call and will transfer or refer calls that are outside the scope of the correspondence examination to the appropriate IRS group. The IRS says it will prioritize calls in order to improve the experience for callers.

The service’s hours differ slightly, based on the IRS division handling the examination. The priority service is available for:

• SB/SE issues: Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., local time.
• W&I issues: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., local time.

Note that the priority service is available only for tax professionals.