April 17--Wait times for taxpayers who called the Internal Revenue Service's toll-free hotline more than doubled to nearly 25 minutes over the past year, according to a federal watchdog report released Thursday.
"This filing season it has become increasingly difficult for taxpayers contacting the IRS by telephone" to get help, J. Russell George, Treasury inspector general for tax administration, said in a statement.
The report said the "average speed of answer" for taxpayers calling the IRS was 24.6 minutes in 2015, as of early March.
That compares with 11.7 minutes in 2014 and 14.1 minutes in 2013.
Budget cuts have been cited as a factor for the increase in wait times. The IRS' fiscal 2015 budget is $10.9 billion, down from $11.3 billion in 2014, an IRS spokesman said Thursday. The agency's funding has been at its lowest level since at least 2010, he said.
Testifying Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen acknowledged that service has been poor.
Long wait times weren't the only problem, he said.
On bad days, fewer than 40 percent of calls were able to reach a live person, Koskinen said.
byerak@tribpub.com
