While on hold with the IRS, have you wondered why it is so hard and taking so long to reach a live person at IRS by phone?
One reason is the historic number of callers. During the 2021 filing season, the IRS received 85.1 million calls on its toll-free 1040 phone line. Then compare this figure with 7.3 million and 12.1 million calls for the 2019 and 2020 filing seasons.
So far in 2021, only 3% of callers reached a live customer service representative. According to IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate, the huge increase in calls this year is caused by numerous factors. For example, taxpayers whose refunds on 2019 or 2020 returns were delayed called IRS often and repeatedly. The Service likely also got lots of calls from people who didn’t get their expected stimulus checks.
Also there are recalls, because I have been informed by and IRS representative that managers find a 35% hang-up rate acceptable customer service.
So you called, waited on hold for an hour plus. Finally get someone on the phone and they don’t want to deal with your issue they hang up on you. That is ok by the supervisors. This happened twice to me and a client in the same day. We wasted a morning and got nothing done and the client still had their unresolved threatening letter from the IRS…