a modest proposal.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
taxpayer assistance centers are a great service for the tens of millions of taxpayers who can’t afford the professional help of a tax preparer. they offer a chance for a taxpayer to sit down with an actual human being who is prepared to help.
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among the services tac staff can help with are:
- account inquiries (help with letters, notices, levies on wages, etc.)
- adjustments and changes to tax account information
- basic tax law assistance
- acceptance of cash payments
- authentication of identities of individuals who may be victims of id theft
- ordering transcripts and tax forms
- information on irs.gov resources and tools
customer satisfaction surveys find that taxpayers rate the quality of tac service at 88 percent or higher. the highest ratings were for the helpfulness of employees and professionalism of the representatives.
that seems hard to imagine for an organization that does such a dismal job of solving problems over the phones and through various online tools.
but look at these numbers:
- 16,483,100 individual tax returns were filed in 2023, yet
- only 1,559,000 taxpayers received tac assistance at
- only 363 tacs, down from 401 in 2011, of which
- only 100 tac locations (27 percent) had full staff.
to judge by phone calls to the irs – 93 million in 2024 – taxpayers need a lot of assistance. and to judge by the customer surveys, taxpayers have good experiences at tacs.
so why does only one out of 93 taxpayers go to a tac for assistance?
an obvious idea
one reason might be that 363 tacs aren’t a whole lot compared to the number of taxpayers and the size of the united states.
another might be that it’s hard to get an appointment at an inadequately staffed tac.
another might be that – surprise! surprise! – taxpayers tend to have jobs. and tac open hours just happen to coincide with the hours that most people work. and some close for lunch.
so how about opening tacs on saturdays?
good idea! so good that the irs opened 93 tacs one saturday per month during the tax season. they called those saturdays “taxpayer experience days.” anybody could just walk in without an appointment.
look what happened
the response was so strong that a lot of taxpayers got tired of waiting and walked away, frustrated and thinking foul thoughts about uncle sam.
one would wonder why not every saturday at all tacs all year. the main reason was, like so many shortcomings at the irs, lack of funding, ergo lack of staff.
but look what happened: some 2,800 irs and taxpayer advocate service employees – bless them, each and every one – volunteered to come in on one saturday each month to help their fellow americans do their patriotic duty.
yes, you read that right. they volunteered. and over 16,000 taxpayers got help on a weekend.
if the irs really wants to help taxpayers – and it really does – it needs to open tacs on all weekends and some evening hours, at all locations, and not just during tax season. and for that to happen, congress needs to appropriate funds. it would be worth the investment, and it’s the least the government could do for the hands that feed it.