Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Better Service for Taxpayers Act”.
Better Service for Taxpayers Act
A BILL
To require that the offices of the Internal Revenue Service are staffed with employees to answer phone calls during business hours and quickly confirm receipt of hard mail tax returns, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
The Internal Revenue Service administers and enforces the Federal tax laws of the United States and should seek to continually improve customer service based on taxpayer needs and feedback.
The people of the United States deserve a communication system with the Internal Revenue Service that is reliable, efficient, accessible, and easy to navigate across multiple channels.
Many agencies, offices, programs, and Federal employees provide excellent customer experiences to taxpayers. However, many aspects of the Federal Government still fall short on delivering the customer experience that individuals have come to expect from the private sector.
According to the 2020 American Customer Satisfaction Index Benchmark, which ranges from 0 to 100, the Internal Revenue Service scored at or below average compared to customer satisfaction with other Federal agencies. The average score from individual e-filers was a 76, small business and self-employed filers gave an average score of 67, and large business and international filers and individual paper filers gave an average score of 59.
The amount of funding spent on taxpayer assistance and education decreased by $5,000,000 between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2020. The number of employees providing these services dropped by 29 percent, and the number of customer service representatives decreased by 41 percent.
The Internal Revenue Service spent nearly 15 percent less during fiscal year 2020 when compared to fiscal year 2010 in examinations and collections. During this time period, the number of Internal Revenue Service employees working in this area declined by 32 percent and the number of Internal Revenue Service employees working as revenue agents declined by 40 percent.
Completing the hiring process for prospective Internal Revenue Service employees can take the agency approximately six to eight months.
Taxpayers will experience an easier, clearer, and quicker tax filing system if the Internal Revenue Service provides more reliable and efficient customer service and taxpayer support services.
To improve services to taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service should work across its departments, leverage updated technology to track tax returns, and enhance the customer service experience.
Sec. 3 Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that—
the Internal Revenue Service should improve its taxpayer support services and customer service experiences for the people of the United States. To do this, the Internal Revenue Service must develop an efficient system that enables taxpayers to track the process of their tax submissions and receive timely support when submitting an inquiry to the Internal Revenue Service,
adequate funding is needed to ensure that Internal Revenue Service workforce, staffing levels, and technological resources can provide the public with improved customer service and problem resolution. A significant portion of Internal Revenue Service funding should be spent on increasing the number of employees in taxpayer-facing positions, including employees working to address taxpayer questions and as customer service staff,
Congress should appropriate the funding necessary to enable the IRS to achieve these improved standards for taxpayer services and support,
the Internal Revenue Service should accelerate its hiring timeline for onboarding new employees, to enable an easy career transition for incoming employees and ensure the Internal Revenue Service is not losing prospective employees because of a slow hiring process, and
the Internal Revenue Service should expedite its ongoing efforts to develop and expand electronic portals, through which taxpayers can check the status of their tax returns and submit inquiries to the Internal Revenue Service.
Sec. 4 Taxpayer service requirements
Telephone availability— The Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall ensure that each office and division of the Internal Revenue Service is staffed with employees to answer phone calls during standard business hours, including 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time, Mondays through Fridays, excluding Federal holidays.
Mail submissions— The Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall ensure that within 15 business days of receipt of a mailed tax return, the Internal Revenue Service shall acknowledge receipt of such tax return by mailing the taxpayer a hard copy response letter, which shall include a phone number for the taxpayer to call with questions and a statement notifying the taxpayer that their tax return is being processed by the Internal Revenue Service.
Sec. 5 Service requirement improvement report
Not later than 365 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall provide an annual report to Congress on the status of its efforts to reach the goals of improving services to taxpayers. Such report shall include specific progress updates relating to the telephone availability requirements of section 4(a) and the mail submissions requirements of section 4(b), and may include requests for additional support from Congress, as needed, to improve service to taxpayers by the Internal Revenue Service.