what “priority service”? only 61 percent of practitioner calls get through.
irs phone line |
level of service |
|---|---|
accounts management |
87% |
practitioner priority service |
61% |
installment agreement / balance due |
35% |
identity theft |
29% |
critical support lines remain overwhelmed.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the internal revenue service reports significant improvements in its phone service, but the gains mask critical shortfalls in other high-demand lines, frustrating taxpayers and practitioners alike.
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despite improvements in certain areas, such as the accounts management lines achieving an 87 percent level of service with average wait times dropping to 3 minutes, other critical lines experienced significantly lower service levels. for instance, the identity theft line had an los of just 29 percent, and the installment agreement/balance due line stood at 35 percent.
however, performance plummets for other phone lines. the level of service on the identity theft line was just 29 percent, and on the installment agreement/balance due line, it was 35 percent.
the practitioner priority service line, heavily used by professionals, managed just 61 percent, well below the standard for acceptable support.
during the 2025 tax filing season, the irs received approximately 38.6 million phone calls, of which 12.4 million—or about 32 percent—were answered by an irs employee. this represents a slight decrease from the 2024 filing season, when the irs received about 39.9 million calls and answered approximately 12.4 million, equating to an employee response rate of 31 percent.
national taxpayer advocate erin m. collins flagged these disparities as a major concern, urging the irs to move beyond average call metrics and evaluate its ability to resolve taxpayer problems end-to-end. “the irs focuses on calls answered,” collins says, “but not whether the taxpayer’s issue was resolved.”
the report also criticized the irs’s reliance on paper-based case management systems and disconnected technology platforms, which slow down phone agents and require multiple callbacks. transferring calls between departments often lacks continuity, forcing taxpayers or their representatives to start from scratch.
for tax firms, this means managing client expectations and preparing for longer resolution times on complex or specialized issues. while a 3-minute wait for basic account inquiries may look good in charts, the reality is uneven at best.
collins recommends that the irs develop a more nuanced approach to measuring phone service, including case resolution metrics, seamless routing, and customer satisfaction across all lines, not just the ones that are easiest to fix.
until then, tax professionals may struggle with inconsistent access, unreturned calls, and extended problem resolution cycles despite the irs’s publicized gains.