The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is no longer just one of the most feared government agencies across the nation. It is also one of the most hated, with the 2015 filing season as the worst in memory.
Public perception of the tax collection agency was actually a two-edged sword. Those who needed no assistance gave the IRS a thumbs up. However, for those who required help, dealing with the taxman was a nightmare.
That description was not based on pure rage, bit on a yearly objective report that the National Taxpayer Advocate submits to Congress. The numbers says it all:
- More than 8 million dropped phone calls in 2015 from 544,000 in 2015
- Drastic drop in rates of calls answered to 37 percent between January 1 and April 18
- Average length of time spent on hold was 23 minutes, up from 14 minutes in 2014.
- Average of 28 minutes holding time for taxpayers notified that their tax returns were blocked due to suspicions of identity theft. Only 17 percent of calls of this nature answered.
- IRS paper forms and publications reached libraries and U.S. Postal Service branches only by February 28, almost halfway of the filing season.
Despite these deficiencies, Nina Olson, head of the National Taxpayer Advocate - established to assist taxpayers who had problems with the IRS - said it was still a generally successful filing season despite difficult circumstances. The IRS processed 126.1 million tax returns and sent 91.8 million refunds.
During the same period, the agency was implementing portions of the Affordable Care Act and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
Olson explained the drop in levels of taxpayer service to the drastic cut by Congress of the IRS budget by over $1.2 billion between federal fiscal years 2010 and 2015. She points out that the average American taxpayer is cooperative as shown by the fact that 98 percent of all revenue collections by the IRS are voluntary and paid on time. Only less than 2 percent need enforcement action to be collected.
While short-term periods of lower funding could also be beneficial in terms of the IRS rethinking its mission and being more effective in allocation resource, from the taxpayers' point of view, the long-term approach appears to be headed in the wrong direction, warns the report.