The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has issued a report finding that the local telephone lines of the Taxpayer Advocate Services (TAS) were not consistent in providing taxpayers the ability to speak with a TAS representative.

The TAS is an independent organization within the IRS. According to its website, the TAS’s role is to ensure that every taxpayer is treated fairly and knows and understands their rights. The TAS protects taxpayers’ rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and provides free assistance to taxpayers by helping them resolve problems they are having with the IRS. The TAS also recommends changes to IRS processes and procedures to help prevent taxpayer problems.

TIGTA began its evaluation after a tax practitioner contacted it with a  concern regarding the service provided on a local TAS telephone line. “Specifically,” the report states, “the tax practitioner stated that their local TAS office had not responded to correspondence sent to the office six weeks prior for a client who was due a refund and was claiming a financial hardship. The tax practitioner also noted they had left a message on the local TAS telephone line and did not receive a call back and in two subsequent calls, they received a message that the voicemail box was full. The overall objective of this evaluation was to determine the readiness of local TAS telephone lines and the consistency of information posted online."

As part of its investigation TIGTA reported that it "called all 76 local TAS telephone lines in the United States, including offices in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, using the telephone numbers listed on the TAS and IRS websites." TIGTA found that some phone lines were not in service, voicemail boxes were full, and there were inconsistent recorded scripted messaging and callback time frames. Only two phone lines were answered by a TAS representative. Voicemail prompts stated that callbacks would be received within time frames ranging from one business day to four weeks.

In addition, TIGTA found several discrepancies regarding contact information—telephone numbers, fax lines and local addresses—between what was listed on the TAS and the IRS websites. TIGTA also identified voicemail messaging that had significant differences in the information being communicated, and in three instances messages still referenced the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reporting on its recommendations, TIGTA said that it “issued an e-mail alert during this evaluation alerting TAS management of the need to provide consistency in telephone messaging, the need to ensure that the TAS and IRS websites have up-to-date local TAS office information posted and ensure that voicemail boxes are properly monitored throughout the day to avoid mailboxes filling up.”

TAS management agreed in part with these recommendations “and took corrective actions to make changes to voicemail messages, made updates to the IRS and TAS websites, and provide more consistent information to taxpayers," the report states. "However, TAS management indicated it has limited staffing to fully agree to all the recommendations. Due to the actions taken, TIGTA is not making any additional recommendations. In response to the draft report, TAS management indicated they took further actions to address the issues TIGTA identified and are taking steps to remedy service gaps on their local office telephone lines to provide better service to taxpayers seeking TAS assistance.”