The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service in fiscal year 2023 often took too long to contact taxpayers who were requesting assistance, a new watchdog report found.
TAS case advocates didn’t timely contact taxpayers or their representatives in 63% (103) of the 163 closed cases sampled, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released June 11 but made public Monday. Taxpayers can ask the independent service inside the IRS to help resolve problems with the agency, and TAS is required to respond within 10 business days. But for almost two-thirds of cases in fiscal 2023, the service didn’t make initial or followup contact within proper time frames, the report found.
Between delays in initial and subsequent outreach, affected taxpayers faced an average of 146 days of delay as TAS reviewed their cases, the report found. TIGTA attributed these delays to an increase in the number of case receipts, an inefficient legacy management system, and a number of new case advocates.
- The report recommended TAS set attainable timetables for responding to requests.
- TAS said that it will release a new customer relationship system this summer, which will help it better monitor cases.
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