The National Association of Enrolled Agents is pushing the IRS to use some of its $80 billion in increased funding to fix its Practitioner Priority Service. The tax pros wrote in a letter to the acting head of the IRS that the service is “nearly nonexistent.”
The Letter
The NAEA crafted a letter to the IRS voicing their many concerns and issues with this phone service. “In particular, the IRS’s Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) phone system, which has the very purpose of providing efficiency and ease for tax professionals, has become nearly inoperable in recent weeks,” wrote NAEA executive vice president Megan Killian in a letter Tuesday to IRS acting commissioner Douglas O’Donnell. “With the recent funding for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), we call on the IRS, as their first action in expending these funds, to immediately begin demonstrating concrete improvement to the phone situation and as a result begin restoring confidence in customer service”.
Suggesting Changes
Several changes have been suggested by the NAEA to reduce call volume they include, having better online tools for tax professionals and reducing the Centralized Authorization File wait time for a transcript. Immediate action must be taken to address this issue and improve customer service.
Some of the other suggestions include:
– Set a goal with metrics for immediate improvement to the phone system;
– Every month, measure and report on wait and response times and customer service satisfaction;
– Utilize private sector expertise to initiate improvements;
– Reassign more staff to answer the PPS phone lines; and,
– Pause the auto-dial pilot that has only increased wait times.
Wrap Up
With this massive influx of cash, the IRS should have more than enough money to effectively implement these changes. Whether they will or not remains to be seen. However, if the agency is to implement some change to make customer service smoother than that would be a massive step in the right direction for the IRS.