Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON,D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) today were joined by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in sending a letter urging Charles Rettig, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), to keep phone lines open while clearing the unprecedented backlog of unprocessed returns and to take concrete steps to instead improve telephone services for American taxpayers all across the country.
“We are concerned to hear reports that the National Taxpayer Advocate held discussions with IRS officials about a temporary shutdown of IRS phone lines in order to clear the backlog of 5.9 million unprocessed individual returns and 2.7 million amended returns. We write to you today to urge that the Internal Revenue Service keep its telephone lines open while clearing the unprecedented backlog of unprocessed returns,” wrote the senators to IRS Commissioner Charles Retting.
The senators noted that the IRS’ ongoing problem of answering taxpayer phone calls in a timely manner has only worsened over the last couple of years. During the 2021 filing season, the IRS only answered 9% of incoming taxpayer phone calls, a continued downward trend since 2018.
The senators added, “We understand the incredible strain that the IRS faces, especially given the challenges with understaffing and the additional workload brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic…However, we believe that temporarily closing telephone lines is an ineffective, ultimately, and counterproductive method of addressing the systemic issues that face your organization. We request that you take all actions necessary to improve customer service outcomes at the IRS and commit to keeping your telephone lines open in an effort to provide America’s taxpayers with the high quality of service that they rightfully expect.”
Last month, Sen. Menendez joined Sen. Cassidy and two other colleagues in urging IRS Commissioner Rettig to investigate recent reports suggesting that EnQ, a private company, is charging taxpayers a premium to speak to an IRS representative or face potentially hours-long wait times. EnQ has allegedly been flooding the IRS with robocalls and selling slots at the front of the hold line to paying customers, taking advantage of an already strained customer service system.
Find a copy of the full letter HERE and below.
Dear Commissioner Rettig:
We are concerned to hear reports that the National Taxpayer Advocate held discussions with IRS officials about a temporary shutdown of IRS phone lines in order to clear the backlog of 5.9 million unprocessed individual returns and 2.7 million amended returns. We write to you today to urge that the Internal Revenue Service keep its telephone lines open while clearing the unprecedented backlog of unprocessed returns.
The IRS has an ongoing problem of answering taxpayer phone calls. During the2021 filing season, the IRS only answered 9% of incoming calls. This is less than previous filing seasons and has continued a downward trend since 2018.
We understand the incredible strain that the IRS faces, especially given the challenges with understaffing and the additional workload brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we appreciate your and the Agency’s efforts to reduce the extensive backlog of tax returns. However, we believe that temporarily closing telephone lines is an ineffective, ultimately, and counterproductive method of addressing the systemic issues that face your organization.
We request that you take all actions necessary to improve customer service outcomes at the IRS and commit to keeping your telephone lines open in an effort to provide America’s taxpayers with the high quality of service that they rightfully expect.
Please provide our offices with information no later than December 10, 2021 regarding any steps that the IRS is taking to improve telephone services—rather than temporary suspension of services—while still addressing the tax return backlog ahead of the upcoming tax filing season.
Sincerely,
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