IRS hotline questions resolved faster in 2025; concern grows about agency’s future

A higher percentage of AICPA members got questions answered quickly by the IRS Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) line during the 2025 tax filing season, according to an annual survey, but they have concerns about the future of the IRS.

The survey of AICPA members showed that 57% of respondents got answers on the PPS hotline most of the time or always without being transferred to another agent or being told the question was “out of scope.” This compares with 37% in 2024.

Fourteen percent said they never or rarely got the answers right away in 2025, compared with 37% in 2024, the survey found.

The hotline “is one of the most important things for tax people because, when we have a question, usually the IRS is the only one that can answer it,” Melanie Lauridsen, the AICPA’s vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy, said on Thursday’s AICPA Town Hall. “What we see is the IRS did answer the phone, and there was improvement there.”

As the IRS faces funding and staffing cutbacks, 70% of members said they are concerned about political distractions affecting funding and administration, compared with 22% in 2024. On the potential impact of late legislative changes, 66% said they were concerned, compared with 29% last year. Sixty-three percent cited continued IRS processing delays as a concern, up from 27% in 2024. And 34% are worried about a lack of clarity or guidance from the IRS compared with 17% in 2024.

On overall service, 30% of respondents said they were satisfied, about the same as in 2024. Thirty-one percent said they were unhappy with IRS service in 2025.

“What’s interesting with this year is the IRS services have pretty much flat-lined, which that’s not a good or a bad thing, especially in this environment, so we are getting consistent service to the prior year,” Lauridsen said. “But when you look at the big picture, we’re not at pre-COVID levels.”

In 2019, before the pandemic began, 44% of respondents said they were satisfied with IRS service. A year later, as COVID-19 took hold, that number dropped to 7%.

Survey comments on IRS service included:

• “Biggest concern is IRS staffing and funding. IRS needs an overhaul with a system that works efficiently — not bare bones.”

• “Inexperienced agents. Quality of service needs to improve from the most basic of questions to the more complex issues.”

• “Quick answer rate. However, resolution varied from agent to agent.”

• “Form 1099s create workload compression. Delayed or corrected Form 1099s force the filing season into two or three weeks.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Martha Waggoner at Martha.Waggoner@aicpa-cima.com.