The Internal Revenue Service will begin spending its newly expanded budget by allocating more than $3 billion toward hiring customer service representatives to answer phones during the 2023 tax filing season.
Taxpayers calling the IRS should expect a higher level of service as the agency seeks to increase hiring and dig itself out of a backlog partly caused by the pandemic. It’s unclear how many people will be brought on during the hiring spree or how many people are needed to help fill the gap.
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Almost 79,000 people were employed by the IRS as of the 2021 fiscal year, and about 40% were operating within the taxpayer service sector, according to the agency.
The $3.2 billion that is being allocated toward service funding is part of the larger $80 billion expanded budget signed by President Joe Biden last week. The majority of the increased budget will go toward strengthening enforcement tactics and modernizing technology systems, with $45.6 billion going toward enforcement and $25.3 billion toward back-office operations.
There are no publicly available details about when the agency will begin its hiring blitz, but IRS officials indicate it should be soon, with spending expected even before the six-month deadline set by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for the IRS to submit a full plan on how it will spend the entirety of the budget.
Bolstering its customer service sector is the first of several moves the IRS will take to revitalize the agency, with the overall effort expected to take years. Once the budget is set, the IRS will seek to hire specialized staff, update its outdated technology, and conduct intensive audits of high-income taxpayers and corporations.
Recently, only 1 in 10 callers has been patched through to a customer service representative at the agency, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, an independent public representative inside the IRS, told the Wall Street Journal.
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Eventually, the agency will try to transition to implementing secure ways for electronic communication, according to the outlet. Until then, the IRS will continue to use its phone lines because it saves time compared to physical mail correspondence.
Aside from the $3.2 billion being provided through the expanded budget, taxpayer services within the IRS are funded through annual congressional spending. This year, though, Democrats will seek to keep that budget at the same amount so that the expanded budget approved by Biden will be considered supplementary.
