IRS Telephone Assistance:
Quality of Service Mixed in the 2000 Filing Season and Below IRS' Long-Term Goal
GAO-01-189: Published: Apr 6, 2001. Publicly Released: May 7, 2001.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
Contact:
(202) 512-5594
contact@gao.gov
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must significantly improve telephone assistance if it is to meet its long-term goal of providing world-class customer service to the tens of millions of taxpayers who call. Although IRS has tried to analyze its performance and identify ways to improve, these efforts have been incomplete. IRS' analyses did not cover all of the key management decisions and other key factors that affect telephone performance. Designing and conducting a comprehensive analysis of the key management decisions and other key factors that affect telephone performance in each filing season will be difficult because the factors that affect performance are multiple and interrelated. However, without a more comprehensive analysis of the factors that affect performance, IRS lacks the information it needs to make decisions to improve performance.
Recommendation for Executive Action
Status: Closed - Implemented
Comments: In response to this recommendation, IRS analyzed and took action on one of the management decisions GAO specifically identified (the decision to provide 24 hour/7 day telephone service). More globally, IRS said that it would conduct performance analyses as part of its annual filing season evaluation, and that it had developed a sophisticated modeling tool that it would begin using in fiscal year 2002, to perform simulations to determine the impact of decisions on service delivery. On July 1, 2003, GAO received documentation that IRS did a critique of the 2002 filing season in response to GAO's recommendation.
Recommendation: The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should ensure that, as part of its performance analysis each filing season, the IRS take into account all key management decisions and other key factors that can affect performance, such as implementing 24-hour, 7-day assistance and the decline in assistor productivity, to determine their impact on the quality of service and to make improvements.
Agency Affected: Department of the Treasury: Internal Revenue Service
Explore the full database of GAO's Open Recommendations
»
Explore the full database of GAO's Open Recommendations
Jan 14, 2021
Tax Administration:
Better Coordination Could Improve IRS's Use of Third-Party Information Reporting to Help Reduce the Tax GapGAO-21-102: Published: Dec 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Nov 18, 2020
-
IRS Reorganization:
Planning Addressed Key Reform Practices, but Goals and Measures for the Plan Have Not Been FinalizedGAO-21-18: Published: Oct 19, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 18, 2020.
Nov 9, 2020
-
Opportunity Zones:
Improved Oversight Needed to Evaluate Tax Expenditure PerformanceGAO-21-30: Published: Oct 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 9, 2020.
Oct 19, 2020
-
Tax Administration:
Opportunities Exist to Improve Oversight of Hospitals' Tax-Exempt StatusGAO-20-679: Published: Sep 17, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 19, 2020.
Sep 23, 2020
-
Taxpayer Service:
IRS Could Improve the Taxpayer Experience by Using Better Service Performance MeasuresGAO-20-656: Published: Sep 23, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 23, 2020.
Aug 31, 2020
-
Abusive Tax Schemes:
Offshore Insurance Products and Associated Compliance RisksGAO-20-589: Published: Jul 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 31, 2020.
Jun 29, 2020
-
Taxpayer Compliance:
More Income Reporting Needed for Taxpayers Working through Online PlatformsGAO-20-366: Published: May 28, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 29, 2020.
Jun 16, 2020
-
Tax Exempt Organizations:
IRS Increasingly Uses Data in Examination Selection, but Could Further Improve Selection ProcessesGAO-20-454: Published: Jun 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 16, 2020.
May 1, 2020
-
Management Report:
Improvements Are Needed to Enhance the Internal Revenue Service's Internal Control over Financial ReportingGAO-20-480R: Published: May 1, 2020. Publicly Released: May 1, 2020.
Apr 30, 2020
-
Priority Open Recommendations:
Internal Revenue ServiceGAO-20-548PR: Published: Apr 23, 2020. Publicly Released: Apr 30, 2020.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here
Explore our Key Issues on Tax Policy and Administration
Explore our other Key Issues here
