So how many of us have tried to contact the IRS by phone by calling a number like 1-800-829-1040? It should be easy right since that number is available Monday through Friday, unless you are in Alaska or Hawaii which follow Pacific time.
Common IRS Phone Numbers and Their Purpose
There are many phone numbers for contacting the IRS, here are a few:
1-800-829-1040, for general account questions
1-800-829-0922, another phone number you may see in letters from the IRS
1-800-829-3636, for forms, if the employee is trained in accounts they will answer your question
1-844-545-5640, for the appointment line
1-800-830-5084, for a Taxpayer Protection employee
1-800-829-7650, for collections
1-800-829-4933, for businesses
The first five numbers are open Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and they will try and help you if they can once you express the reason for your call is what the line is for. Just say oh by the way can you maybe answer my question?
Why Is It So Hard to Reach the IRS?
Now I know you’re thinking they lost a quarter of their workforce with Trump’s “deferred resignation program” where they gave worker months of pay to quit or retire. Many took Trump up on it, especially since the IRS is one of the more challenging places to work. But that is only part of the problem. They were short of workers for years in any case and Biden got the IRS more money to hire more agents which the Republicans painted as “armed agents” tasked to audit and collect your IRS debts.
But the IRS needed lots of people to work looking at many areas from identity theft, to returns that needed to be verified for accuracy, or returns needing to verified if they were genuinely the taxpayer’s return. Besides, the exam area was also understaffed, some had balances that needed to be addressed, and some folks just wanted to know where is their refund is.
During the pandemic the IRS grew a huge backlog of returns. Mine was one of them and it took months more time to process. I only found out when I tried filing the following year and a prior year adjusted gross income didn’t match the IRS records. A family member who knows how the IRS works just entered zero for that year’s adjusted gross income and the return I was trying to file got accepted. When I called the IRS eventually I got a person but it took more than a few frustrating calls and long hold times, but the IRS rep confirmed my previous return was there just not processed.
A year or so ago the IRS started training more and more people across the IRS to process amended returns. The inventory of amended returns was reduced quite a bit. But remember, the IRS lost a quarter of its workforce and they are still taking people, who would normally answer calls about refunds and other topics, and having those individuals work their personal inventory of amended returns. Workers could be calls coming faster than machine bullets but they pull them off the phones? We all know people trying to get through and just can’t and sometimes they really need to.
Specific Issues Requiring a Phone Call
For example, if a return comes in and has a mistake on it the return could be routed to their errors resolution area. They could send out a letter asking for a form or just need a response to clarify what was filed. An IRS worker could look at the account and if a letter from this area was sent they can see what paragraphs were picked and tell the caller this is what the IRS needs and even how to respond by mail or fax.
Identity theft cases they say most will be resolved in 120 days or less but the IRS says on its website that on average it could take up to 582 days to resolve. But they are making progress it used to be 650 days!
The Taxpayer Protection Area sends out a variety of letters asking you to verify a return that the IRS received actually being your return. And you could even have a balance that was due and this area could send out a letter asking if it was their return. I’m sure the vast majority of these types of returns have larger refunds or are people filing their first return. And most of these letters give you a number to call, some letters offer an option to verify online as well as the number, and others instruct you to call the appointment line number to visit an IRS office to verify in person.
These are just some of the reasons putting heavy demands on the IRS customer service lines. And this in an era of declining staffing to take calls and shifting people off the phones to do other stuff that frankly after the pandemic is long over and amended returns cases are at lower levels makes no sense at all. People just need the ability to talk to someone.
Who knows AI’s may save the day. I don’t know about you, but I want to talk to a person instead of a machine concerning tax problems when calling an IRS phone number. Having an AI to process an amended return is one thing that is coming I am sure.
What to Do When You Can’t Get Through to the IRS
If you can’t get through, don’t give up. Just call your member of congress. Get them to call the IRS then it gets escalated as a “congressional inquiry,” then the IRS picks up the pace. Members of congress love solving this kind of thing for constituents since it builds loyal voters!
