{"id":690,"date":"2026-07-31T20:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=690"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:47:10","slug":"irs-could-be-required-to-publicly-report-wait-times-and-backlogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=690","title":{"rendered":"IRS could be required to publicly report wait times and backlogs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A bipartisan bill focused on improving customer service at the IRS is headed for a full Senate vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Education reorganization faces bipartisan pushback, as lawmakers push to disclose price tag<\/a><\/p>\n

The Senate Finance Committee advanced the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act in a 26-1 vote during a Thursday markup hearing. The bill contains over 60 IRS reforms proposed by Republicans and Democrats on the committee and the agency\u2019s National Taxpayer Advocate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

IRS leadership touted the agency\u2019s performance during this year’s filing season, despite the agency shedding more than a quarter of its employees. Agency watchdogs, however, have raised\u00a0concerns with the agency\u2019s level of responsiveness to taxpayers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said some provisions in the bill would \u201cslash wait times\u201d for Americans who may otherwise\u00a0\u201cspend an afternoon on hold\u201d with the IRS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bipartisan bill modernizes and streamlines IRS operations, strengthens taxpayer rights, and delivers a more taxpayer-first system,\u201d Crapo said. \u201cIt reflects years of bipartisan efforts to translate stories of casework frustrations and tangible fixes designed to make the IRS work more efficiently for the American people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,\u00a0said many of the bill\u2019s provisions \u201cwill help ensure that refunds get out the door on time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re going to improve customer service. They’re going to make it easier for taxpayers to get help during filing season,\u201d Wyden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill would require the IRS to create a public dashboard on its website featuring metrics on its call volume, backlogs, wait times and the availability of callbacks. It would require the IRS to offer a callback option for all of its phone lines by 2028 whenever calls are not answered within five minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who included these provisions, said the bill would provide added transparency whenever the IRS falls behind on processing returns or correspondence, \u201celiminating guessing games for taxpayers wondering why their refunds haven’t arrived.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano told IRS employees just before the start of the filing season that the agency would adopt new customer service metrics, scrapping its level-of-service phone metric that had been in use for about 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The IRS shed about 27% of its workforce last year largely through voluntary separation incentives. Bisignano told lawmakers in April that the agency saw its \u201cmost successful filing season in IRS history,\u201d demonstrating that the IRS can have both \u201cless people and better results.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, in a report to Congress submitted last month, wrote that \u201cfor most taxpayers, the filing season went smoothly,\u201d but that for millions of taxpayers requiring assistance, the filing season was \u201cfrustrating, confusing, and financially disruptive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Collins wrote that taxpayers in some cases could not reach an IRS employee over the phone despite multiple calls, and taxpayers whose returns were erroneously flagged by identity theft filters had to wait weeks or months to receive\u00a0their tax refunds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith fewer employees and even fewer experienced employees, personal service was harder to come by. That translated to longer waits for assistance, fewer experienced employees available to work on complex account issues, delayed responses to correspondence and, as a result, longer case resolution times,\u201d she\u00a0\u00a0wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill would require the IRS to accept and process all returns\u00a0electronically, and to digitize returns and taxpayer correspondence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agency, through its Zero Paper Initiative, is trying to digitize incoming paper tax returns and correspondence to reduce processing times.\u00a0 As of December 2025, the \u00a0found that four contractors hired by the IRS to digitize paper tax returns processed about 379,000 of the agency\u2019s 10.7 million paper returns \u2014 about 4% of its inventory.<\/p>\n

The bill would also take steps to ensure the IRS pays whistleblowers more quickly.\u00a0The IRS Whistleblower Office, since 2007, has helped the agency recover nearly $8 billion in taxes owed. Whistleblowers are entitled to a portion of the funds the IRS recovers, but they typically wait for more than decade to get paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill\u00a0requires the IRS to pay interest on delayed whistleblower awards. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said these reforms \u201cwill lead to even greater collections moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several lawmakers raised concerns that the bill doesn\u2019t do anything to address the agency\u2019s widespread staffing losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said the bill doesn\u2019t do anything to address the agency\u2019s staffing losses or a growing \u201ctax gap\u201d between what taxpayers owe and what the IRS is able to collect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking sure that the IRS is funded and staffed is essential to having a fair system,\u201d said\u00a0Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. \u201cWe look at the cuts that came through earlier this year. It means we’re eliminating trained and experienced revenue agents who can audit and do complex returns.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Yale Budget Lab estimated that last year\u2019s staffing cuts resulted a $861 billion decrease in revenue collected by the IRS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose cuts won’t produce savings. They just actually cost money,” Cantwell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more CDC nominee clears key Senate hurdle despite vaccine scrutiny<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bipartisan Senate bill would create new transparency around the agency’s customer service performance and expand callback options for taxpayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management"],"yoast_head":"\nIRS could be required to publicly report wait times and backlogs - Market Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=690\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IRS could be required to publicly report wait times and backlogs - 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