Decades-old computer systems ‘paid for by the Kennedy administration’ and terrible management are the reasons for poor customer service at the IRS, an insider has claimed.
An IRS employee, who has worked at the agency for more than a decade, has spoken exclusively to DailyMail.com about its failings, as it comes under fire for long call wait times.
The staffer, who has worked on the customer service and IT teams, said that managers pursued ‘vanity projects’ instead of making changes which would benefit workers and taxpayers.
It comes after a bombshell report in June revealed that an inefficient use of staff means that customer service representatives were often left ‘sitting around for the phone to ring.’
At the same time, only 31 percent of those who tried to get in touch with the agency were actually able to get through to speak to a human.
Decades-old computer systems ‘paid for by the Kennedy administration’ and terrible management are the reasons for poor customer service at the IRS, an insider has claimed
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Customer service workers were waiting for calls for 1.1 million hours during this year’s seven week tax season, according to a report from the National Taxpayer Advocate, a watchdog for the IRS.
Latest figures show there are around 20,000 customer service employees at the IRS.
This means that this filing season each one lost an average of 55 hours, or just under seven eight-hour working days, according to DailyMail.com calculations.
Customer service representatives either answer phones, or they process taxpayer letters, but they cannot do both. Even if call volume is low, staffers are stuck working on the phone lines.
But this report only scratches the surface of what is really going on at the IRS, the staffer claimed.
PULLING OUT STAPLES
The worker claimed that an ineffective use of staff means taxpayers are left waiting hours on the phone to try to get through for help.
‘There are customer service workers who are tasked with answering correspondence who will spend the whole day doing nothing but pulling staples out of papers,’ they said.
‘And management just turn a blind eye.’
DECADES-OLD SYSTEMS
‘There is an ongoing joke that some of the oldest systems were paid for by the Kennedy administration,’ the worker told DailyMail.com.
‘And the reality of the jokes is that I believe them to be very accurate.’
While many of the computers have been updated, antiquated ‘legacy’ systems are still an issue, they claimed.
‘For about two weeks of the year, the systems are completely unavailable as they have to be offline to make updates.
‘There’s not a way to update in place. A lot of companies now are able to do that. Like when Facebook updates, it does not have to be taken down for two weeks – it takes minutes.
‘But because we’re using legacy systems, we don’t have those kinds of capabilities.’
Having the systems switched off for weeks then causes a real problem with customer service, they claimed.
‘We have to piecemeal together this old technology because we can’t really afford to replace it, or there isn’t a good option to replace it.’
The worker claimed that an ineffective use of staff means taxpayers are left waiting hours on the phone to try to get through for help
The IRS lost 55 hours of work per customer service representative this filing season due to its ‘inefficient’ systems, DailyMail.com analysis can reveal
The IRS has been under fire for its long wait times (Pictured: IRS commissioner Danny Werfel)
COMMUNICATION FAIL
Outdated systems also mean account notes are not shared across different departments, the insider claimed.
‘Collections customer service is different from examination or audit customer service. The tools and the notes that each department accesses are completely different,’ they said.
If someone has been audited, they explained, and they get in touch with a different department a year later, the customer service representative will not have the details as to why they were audited the year prior.
‘Having those kinds of notes there would benefit the customer service agent, but the systems are all siloed, just like the different groups.
‘Everybody is siloed and there is not a lot of intercommunication between systems. It’s not like we have one system for all tax stuff. You’ve got 10 or 15 different systems, and that might be undershooting the amount of systems we have.’
This can lead to taxpayers getting frustrated, they said, as they assume that the IRS staffer has the notes in front of them detailing any past communication with the agency.
Instead of prioritizing critical changes, executives pursue vanity projects – such as needlessly pushing for Apple Mac computers – they claimed.
‘You have executives prioritizing what they believe to be a big win, and ultimately it is going to be nothing but a headache and something that is not going to be long term supportable.’
People are worried that if some processes or positions become automated, they added, then they will lose their jobs.
The worker claimed that account notes are not shared across different departments, which can lead to callers becoming frustrated and abusive
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TOXIC WORKPLACE
When employees face abuse from taxpayers on the phone, there is no clear protocol of how to report or deal with it, the insider claimed.
Callers often get frustrated, they said, especially if they expect the customer service representative to be aware of their history and prior calls to the IRS and if they have been waiting a long time to get through.
‘People will be cussing and yelling and screaming and threatening us. They will treat you like you’re garbage. That’s probably the hardest part,’ they said.
‘But unfortunately if you hang up you could wind up getting congressionally reviewed, because they could call their member of Congress who could then start looking into it.’
Congressional offices are able to step in and help Americans if they are facing problems with federal agencies including the IRS.
But the worker claimed there is no set standard between different managers for what to do if a caller is aggressive.
‘Some managers will be telling you to take more abuse, and some will be telling you not to take any of it.’
Many workers put up with the abuse, they claimed, for fear of losing their job if the complaint gets taken further.
DailyMail.com approached the IRS for comment. A representative pointed toward a news release from April.
It highlighted a variety of improvements that expanded service for millions of taxpayers during the 2024 filing season.
This included improvements to the phone service, more calls answered and faster response times.