The tax filing season officially begins today, January 23, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is optimistic that taxpayers will have a positive experience this year.
This optimism is largely due to $80 billion in additional funding the agency received as part of the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
ABC News reported details regarding how the money has been used so far.
In a press conference last week, Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo that the agency has used funds to hire more customer service staff and modernize aging technology, some of which had been in place for decades.
Specifically, the IRS has hired 5,000 new customer service workers to answer calls. Per ABC's report, a mere 13% of 173 million calls to the IRS were fielded by live agents in 2022 and 8% of calls were answered with automated assistance.
The new hires give the IRS a "historic number" of employees ready to assist American taxpayers.
Although Capitol Hill Republicans have opposed the IRS funding boon, a bipartisan group of former IRS commissioners strongly supported the move last summer.
Fred Goldberg, who headed the agency under former President George H. W. Bush, joined President Bill Clinton's IRS head, Charles Rossotti, and John Koskinen, who led the IRS under the President Barack Obama administration in signing a statement in favor of the legislation.
In 2022, the IRS also released details of a five-year plan designed to improve the taxpayer experience.
In an official release, the IRS said this plan "will serve as a roadmap to help guide the agency's programs and operations. The plan will also help meet the changing needs of taxpayers and members of the tax community."
What do you think? Will American taxpayers have a good experience filing taxes this year?
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