About a quarter of callers to two IRS lines got poor service, TIGTA says

About one-fourth of callers to two IRS telephone lines during three months in 2025 did not receive quality customer service, a watchdog report dated June 10 said.

“Recurring quality issues could lead to chronic service deficiencies and diminished taxpayer satisfaction,” the report from the Treasury Inspector General for Taxpayer Administration (TIGTA) said.

The IRS agreed with the three recommendations TIGTA made in its report.

TIGTA said it listened to 200 recordings of calls to Compliance Services and Accounts Management telephone lines from Feb. 15, 2025, to May 15, 2025. Of those, 52 callers, or 26%, did not receive quality customer service, the report said.

Those two phone lines received 3.8 million calls during the three months, TIGTA said. Extrapolating data from its “statistically valid sample,” TIGTA said, about 1 million total taxpayers did not receive quality service. A lack of quality customer service included dropped, disconnected, or improperly transferred calls; extensive hold times; inaccurate information provided; and discourteous service.

TIGTA estimated that 18% (more than 250,000) of the almost 1.4 million taxpayers who called Compliance Services did not receive quality service and that 34% (more than 800,000) of the almost 2.4 million taxpayers who called Accounts Management did not receive quality service.

Because of a previous TIGTA report that identified similar issues, IRS management told TIGTA that it provided training in February to emphasize the importance of professional and courteous service.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights on the IRS home page says that taxpayers should receive prompt, courteous, and professional assistance; should be spoken to in a way they can easily understand; and should receive explanations of IRS laws, procedures, and decisions about their tax accounts.

The IRS agreed with the following TIGTA recommendations, which said that the IRS should:

• Revise Internal Revenue Manual Section 21.1.1, Accounts Management and Compliance Services Overview, to require representatives to document all types of dropped or disconnected calls, or calls that were not properly transferred, including the circumstances of the disconnection when known.

• Emphasize to all representatives the importance of following hold time requirements, handling calls properly (e.g., using appropriate tone, avoiding jargon, etc.) and asking probing questions to ensure compliance with procedures and ensure that callers receive good customer service.

• Evaluate recurring quality-of-service issues identified by Taxpayer Services’ internal quality reviews, identify areas of improvement, and implement procedural changes or additional training to reduce their recurrence.

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