An official website of the U.S. GovThe IRS must reduce its heavy reliance on paper processing by prioritizing automation, improving service metrics, and enabling end-to-end digital workflows to reduce delays, bottlenecks, and taxpayer frustration.
To enhance taxpayer service through automation and accurate performance measurements, TAS recommends that the IRS:
Implement End-to-End Paperless Processing: Disclose to Congress and the public the full scope, objectives, milestones, and implementation timeline of its end-to-end paperless processing initiative by the end of FY 2025. Ensure that digitized data is fully compatible with IRS systems for automatic routing, work assignment, and resolution.
Quarter 1 Updates
TAS is reviewing how to incorporate this initiative into an existing or new Collaborative Team, a Systemic Advocacy Project, or a potential FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress Most Serious Problem. Progress during this period was affected by the lapse in appropriations and related operational impacts, including reduced staffing capacity, reassignment of work and priorities, and a reevaluation of TAS’s approach to managing systemic advocacy objectives and associated initiatives.
Quarter 2 Updates
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) determined that the most effective course of action for this Systemic Advocacy Objective (SAO) was to elevate the issue to a Most Serious Problem (MSP) in the FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress. TAS has provided the IRS with the following recommendation to further address this issue, as outlined in MSP Telephones & IRS Modernization/Digitalization, Recommendation:
By the end of FY 2026, the IRS should adopt an alternative telephone service metric that measures the taxpayer experience, including outcome-based attributes such as quality, first contact resolution, and the impact of staffing decisions on paper processing and correspondence inventories.
As a result of elevating this issue from an SAO to an MSP, TAS is closing the SAO and will instead track the IRS’s response and ongoing activities through the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) Recommendations Tracker page.
Adopt Enhanced Metrics for Phone Service: By the end of FY 2025, expand and analyze the Service Completion Rate measurement or other alternative measures of telephone service that evaluate the overall taxpayer experience. These metrics should assess the quality, accuracy, timeliness, and resolution of service, not just call connection rates. Adopt an alternate metric of service for phones that measures the taxpayer experience, including attributes related to the quality of service provided and whether the IRS resolved the taxpayer’s issue, and balance its resources to provide quality service more efficiently by the end of FY 2025.
Quarter 1 Updates
TAS is reviewing how to incorporate this initiative into an existing or new Collaborative Team, a Systemic Advocacy Project, or a potential FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress Most Serious Problem. Progress during this period was affected by the lapse in appropriations and related operational impacts, including reduced staffing capacity, reassignment of work and priorities, and a reevaluation of TAS’s approach to managing systemic advocacy objectives and associated initiatives.
Quarter 2 Updates
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) determined that the most effective course of action for this Systemic Advocacy Objective (SAO) was to elevate the issue to a Most Serious Problem (MSP) in the FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress. TAS has provided the IRS with the following recommendation to further address this issue, as outlined in MSP Telephones & IRS Modernization/Digitalization, Recommendation:
By the end of FY 2026, the IRS should adopt an alternative telephone service metric that measures the taxpayer experience, including outcome-based attributes such as quality, first contact resolution, and the impact of staffing decisions on paper processing and correspondence inventories.
As a result of elevating this issue from an SAO to an MSP, TAS is closing the SAO and will instead track the IRS’s response and ongoing activities through the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) Recommendations Tracker page.
Advance Conversational Routing of Calls: Continue developing intelligent call-routing technologies to improve automation in taxpayer service. Disclose to Congress and the public the initiative’s scope, milestones, and expected outcomes by the end of FY 2025.
Quarter 1 Updates
TAS is reviewing how to incorporate this initiative into an existing or new Collaborative Team, a Systemic Advocacy Project, or a potential FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress Most Serious Problem. Progress during this period was affected by the lapse in appropriations and related operational impacts, including reduced staffing capacity, reassignment of work and priorities, and a reevaluation of TAS’s approach to managing systemic advocacy objectives and associated initiatives.
Quarter 2 Updates
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) determined that the most effective course of action for this Systemic Advocacy Objective (SAO) is to refocus our efforts on telephones around taxpayer experience with telephone service, chatbots, and voicebots. We elevated this focus to a Most Serious Problem (MSP) in the FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress. TAS has provided the IRS with the following recommendations to further address this issue, as outlined in MSP Telephones & IRS Modernization/Digitalization, Recommendations:
By the end of FY 2026, the IRS should adopt an alternative telephone service metric that measures the taxpayer experience, including outcome-based attributes such as quality, first contact resolution, and the impact of staffing decisions on paper processing and correspondence inventories.
By the end of FY 2026, adopt a metric of service for chatbots and voicebots that measures the taxpayer experience, including attributes related to the quality of service provided and whether the IRS resolved the taxpayer’s issue.
As a result of elevating this issue from an SAO to an MSP, TAS is closing the SAO and will instead track the IRS’s response and ongoing activities through the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) Recommendations Tracker page.
Prioritize Taxpayer 360 Implementation: Expedite deployment of the Taxpayer 360 platform to enhance CSR access to taxpayer data, enabling quicker, more informed responses. Disclose the scope of Taxpayer 360, initiative details, and milestones to Congress and the public by the end of FY 2025.
Quarter 1 Updates
TAS is reviewing how to incorporate this initiative into an existing or new Collaborative Team, a Systemic Advocacy Project, or a potential FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress Most Serious Problem. Progress during this period was affected by the lapse in appropriations and related operational impacts, including reduced staffing capacity, reassignment of work and priorities, and a reevaluation of TAS’s approach to managing systemic advocacy objectives and associated initiatives.
Quarter 2 Updates
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) determined that the most effective course of action for this Systemic Advocacy Objective (SAO) was to elevate the issue to a Most Serious Problem (MSP) in the FY 2025 Annual Report to Congress. TAS has provided the IRS with the following recommendation to further address this issue, as outlined in MSP Telephones & IRS Modernization/Digitalization, Recommendation:
Expedite deployment of the Taxpayer 360 platform by the end of FY 2026 to enhance all CSRs’ aces to taxpayer data and research, enabling quicker, more accurate responses and increased first contact resolution.
As a result of elevating this issue from an SAO to an MSP, TAS is closing the SAO and will instead track the IRS’s response and ongoing activities through the Annual Report to Congress (ARC) Recommendations Tracker page.
