Yellen announces taxpayer service improvements for 2023 tax season

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen announced (Sept. 15, 2022) new customer service improvements taxpayers can expect for the 2023 tax season thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Secretary Yellen announced the upgrades in a speech to IRS employees during a visit to the agency’s facility in New Carrollton, Maryland. She outlined how increased resources will enable the agency to deliver the level of service the American people deserve, from getting phone calls answered and solving problems online to receiving refunds more quickly.

Secretary Yellen announced the Inflation Reduction Act will enable the IRS to make the following improvements for the 2023 tax season:

1. Triple the number of Americans served at IRS Tax Assistance Centers. Last year, the IRS served around 900,000 Americans face-to-face. In the coming filing season, the IRS is projected to serve at least 2.7 million Americans.
2. Cut phone wait times in half by hiring 5,000 additional customer service representatives. During the most recent filing season, the IRS averaged a 10-15% level of service, meaning that it answered less than 2 of every 10 calls. In this coming filing season, we are committing the IRS to an 85% level of service. That means that over five times the number of calls will be answered.
3. Speed up processing and refunds by moving online. Today, employees at the IRS still manually transcribe many paper returns. In this coming filing season, the IRS will automate the scanning of millions of individual paper returns into a native digital copy.