The IRS is taking claim for a range of technology-driven customer service improvements over the past year, and pointing to future improvements it hopes to achieve, in an update to its strategic operating plan published on May 2.
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel tied service improvements at the IRS tightly to the influx of funding that the agency has received through the Inflation Reduction Act approved by Congress in 2022. That law gave the IRS multi-year funding of $80 billion over its regular annual appropriations to devote toward modernization of agency services and technology, although that total has since been cut to $60 billion by Congress.
“You will see in these documents that we have made tremendous progress toward realizing the goals” of the strategic operating plan, “and work continues to accelerate,” Werfel said. “We have made fundamental changes that have improved taxpayer services, brought new fairness to compliance efforts and launched important changes to our technology.”
“We are making a difference to taxpayers and the nation, and the improvements at the IRS are just beginning,” he said.
“The changes outlined in this report are a stark contrast to the years of under-funding that deteriorated taxpayer service and tax enforcement, frustrating taxpayers, the tax community and IRS employees alike,” Werfel continued. “The funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act creates a unique opportunity to realize a future of tax administration that meets the evolving needs of taxpayers.”
Tech-driven improvements for the 2024 tax filing season, the IRS said, include:
- Answering one million more phones calls with an average caller wait time of about three minutes by employing callback options for callers;
- Improving online tools including the agency’s Where’s My Refund and Tax Pro Online Accounts and launching new ones including the Business Tax Account;
- Launching the agency’s Direct File online tax filing pilot that drew more than 140,000 users.
Going forward, the IRS said it will focus on further improvements including modernizing foundational technology that will integrate data security, accelerating digitalization by delivering 150 non-tax forms to taxpayers online, and increasing efficiency in live assistance to call centers by expanding staffing levels at Taxpayer Assistance Centers and Pop-up Live Assistance Centers.
Also high on the agency’s to-do list for the next 12 to 18 months are:
- Expanding online services by expanding the features available in online accounts, including digital copies of notices, status updates, secure two-way messaging and expanded payment options;
- Simplifying notices by redesigning up to 200 notices, capturing 90 percent of all notice volume for individual taxpayers, and initiating business process changes necessary to flexibly generate notices and reduce taxpayer burden;
- Disrupting tax scams and schemes by coordinating with partners to identify scams and victims and improving victim assistance;
- Modernizing how the IRS attracts, retains, develops, and empowers employees, focusing on efforts to ensure they have the tools, training and culture they need to perform at their best;
- Improving IRS employee tools by developing and integrating high priority software tools into operations to help taxpayers and improve service; and
- Ensuring fairness in enforcement through hiring and increased training in critical staffing areas such as those dedicated to high-income earners and large and complex partnerships.
