Have you tried contacting the IRS is the last year or so? If you have you know that the hold times easily reach an hour and that a 35% hang up rate is acceptable to IRS managers.
But that is destined to change (evil laugh), the plan is to make reaching the IRS’s toll-free help line should be a bit easier this year (again, evil laugh).
The agency is scheduled to hire up to 1,000 temporary workers to help man the telephone lines (training levels are unknown).
During last year’s filing season, over 60% of the callers couldn’t get through at all, and those that did had to wait 30 minutes or more before speaking with a live person.
But don’t expect any miracles; The Service’s aim for this year’s filing season is to have up to 60% of callers get through and reduce wait times to under 20 minutes. Which means four in 10 taxpayers who try to call in for help still won’t be served.
Tax professionals should see faster response times on IRS’s priority practitioner line. Last year, many waited an hour or even longer when calling about clients’ accounts.
So I have low expectations. I would be happier with a much lower hang-up rate. I was hung up on three times in one week after waiting on hold for over an hour each time with a single client.