Published: August 27, 2024 | Last Updated: February 3, 2026

Improve Taxpayer Access to Telephone and In-Person Assistance

Background

When taxpayers need IRS assistance filing and paying their federal taxes, two of the primary service channels they use are calling telephone lines and seeking in-person assistance at Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs). The IRS reports its performance assisting callers on the telephone lines using a metric called Level of Service (LOS), which fails to measure several industry standard factors. TAS has advocated for the IRS to adopt a more comprehensive measure of phone service that includes the quality of the caller’s experience. Although it is commendable that the IRS reported an LOS of 88 percent on its Accounts Management (AM) toll-free phone lines during Filing Season 2024, that calculation includes calls where the IRS routed a caller to an automated response when they wanted to reach a live assistor, calls where the CSR was unable to answer the caller’s questions, and calls where the taxpayer had to call multiple times or was unsatisfied with the service they received from a CSR for other reasons. As such, the LOS is neither a good measurement of service nor an accurate reflection of the taxpayer experience.

Highlights

Status

Activities

Activity 1: Advocate for the discontinuation of the Level of Service measure.

Activity 2: Propose new methods of measuring taxpayer experience that include metrics related to quality of service provided for the IRS to put in place by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2025.

Activity 3: Advocate for the IRS to give callers an opportunity to opt into a post-call quality survey before they connect to a CSR by the end of FY 2025.

Activity 4: Promote expanded TAC hours of operation beyond 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, including regular Saturday hours, to be in place by the end of FY 2025 for all TAC offices.

Activity Updates

Activity 1: The IRS Taxpayer Services (TS) unit has plans to baseline new toll-free metrics in FY2026 and implement it for FY2027 to capture level of service reporting data used in their Filing Season and Calendar Year public-facing reports. TS has demonstrated their willingness to discontinue the LOS measure and is working towards implementing a metric. This activity is being closed and all FY2026 actions will be tracked under the new FY2026 Systemic Advocacy Objective which aligns to these efforts.

Activity 2: Taxpayer Services (TS) is in the process of updating Enterprise Self Assistance Participation Rate components. Due to resource reductions and change in reporting, TS is experiencing delays in starting this methodology, but showed willingness to incorporate new quality measures. This activity is being closed and all FY2026 actions will be tracked under the new FY2026 Systemic Advocacy Objective which aligns to these efforts.

Activity 3: The post-call quality survey option is still not supported by Taxpayer Services’ current system. TAS requested the IRS furnish the results gathered from the Customer Satisfaction Surveys. TAS will review the results from the Customer Satisfaction Surveys to identify trends and opportunities for improvement.

Activity 4: The IRS provided taxpayers the opportunity to obtain appointments beyond normal operating hours in most TAC locations. Several initiatives, including Extended Weekday Hours and Taxpayer Experience Days, increased the availability of in-person assistance to ensure taxpayers obtained appointments beyond the regular hours. IRS scheduled appointments based on availability during the two initiatives, and will continue these initiatives pending availability of resources and funding.

This activity is being closed since IRS has demonstrated their willingness to offer extended TAC hours even with their limited resources.

1st Quarter Actions Completed

TAS participated in multiple discussions with the IRS Transformation and Strategy Office regarding ‘Conversational Routing Reporting Metrics’. These efforts focused on revising the Level of Service (LOS) formulas to account for total call attempts and include calls resolved through automation in the calculations. Once Artificial Intelligence (AI) is implemented, LOS is expected to improve as customers will only need to speak with representatives for issues that AI cannot resolve.

With the FY 2025 Filing Season underway, we are offering expanded services such as callback options, chatbot functionality, and enhanced online tools. However, current plans do not include a post-call quality survey. Advocacy for implementing this survey will resume after the filing season.

While recognizing the need for additional assistance hours during this busy period, resource constraints prevent extended service hours. Advocacy for extended hours will also resume following the filing season.

2nd Quarter Actions Completed

The process is still occurring. However, all discussions have been paused to address other IRS administrative priorities. TAS will continue to follow-up to learn next steps.

The IRS does not have a post-call survey initiative for the 2025 Filing Season. TAS will continue advocating for this after filing season is over.

The Taxpayer Assistance Centers were able to provide occasional extended hours at some of their locations during filing season. A lack of resources continued to prevent them from providing more frequent extended hours. TAS will discuss their plans going forward after filing season.

3rd Quarter Actions Completed

The LOS metric is still used across the call center to measure taxpayer experience. Taxpayer Services (TS) is looking at alternate sets of metrics. TS plans to work on new toll-free metrics during Fiscal Year 2026, the expectation is to implement them for Fiscal Year 2027. TAS will continue to follow-up to learn next steps.

Taxpayer Services plans on updating the Enterprise Self Assistance Participation Rate components; however, due to resource reductions and change in reporting, it has not started this methodology. TAS will continue to follow-up to learn about the next steps.
The post-call quality survey option is still not supported by Taxpayer Services’ current system. TAS requested the IRS furnish the results gathered from the Customer Satisfaction Surveys. TAS will review the results from the Customer Satisfaction Surveys to identify trends and opportunities for improvement.

The IRS provided taxpayers the opportunity to obtain appointments beyond normal operating hours in most Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) locations. Several initiatives, including Extended Weekday Hours and Taxpayer Experience Days, increased the availability of in-person assistance to ensure taxpayers obtained appointments beyond 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Field Assistance and Accounts Management scheduled appointments based on availability during the two initiatives. IRS will continue these initiatives pending availability of resources and funding. TAS will continue advocating for extended TAC hours.

4th Quarter Actions Completed

The IRS Taxpayer Services (TS) unit has plans to baseline new toll-free metrics in FY2026 and implement it for FY2027 to capture level of service reporting data used in their Filing Season and Calendar Year public-facing reports. TS has demonstrated their willingness to discontinue the LOS measure and is working towards implementing a metric. TAS is considering addressing this issue on its next Annual Report to Congress.

Taxpayer Services (TS) is in the process of updating Enterprise Self Assistance Participation Rate components. Due to resource reductions and change in reporting, TS is experiencing delays in starting this methodology, but showed willingness to incorporate new quality measures. TAS is considering addressing this issue on its next Annual Report to Congress.

The post-call opt-in survey option is not supported by the current IRS system; therefore, when the IRS Customer Service Representative (CSR) is notified, CSRs invite the caller to complete a survey at the end of the call. TAS will monitor the final implementation and is considering addressing this issue on its next Annual Report to Congress.

The IRS provided taxpayers the opportunity to obtain appointments beyond normal operating hours in most TAC locations. Several initiatives, including Extended Weekday Hours and Taxpayer Experience Days, increased the availability of in-person assistance to ensure taxpayers obtained appointments beyond the regular hours. IRS scheduled appointments based on availability during the two initiatives, and will continue these initiatives pending availability of resources and funding.

Return to FY26 Objective Statuses