IRS seeks to guide taxpayers to Internet and phone help
Plan would aim to preserve access to face-to-face consultations, but expand use of less costly services.
The Internal Revenue Service plans to test a new model of walk-in assistance centers where taxpayers are helped to use phone and Internet services, in an effort to direct people to the more efficient forms of service and minimize expensive face-to-face contacts.
Using "facilitated self-assistance," 15 of the agency's Taxpayer Assistance Centers will install computers and telephones where individuals will be guided in how to get the information they need without sitting down for one-on-one help with an IRS employee. Face-to-face consultations will continue to be available at the centers as well.
Usage data from the pilot project will be monitored. Officials expect the new approach will smooth the workload at the walk-in centers -- where surges can be difficult to handle based on the traditional first-come, first-served model -- and help taxpayers get assistance from experts most qualified to handle the types of questions they raise.
The plan was described in a new Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint, released Wednesday. The report sets a baseline for the agency's understanding of how taxpayers use IRS services and lays out a plan for research and service provision over the next five years.
The assistance centers were the focus of a firestorm when IRS announced in 2005 that dozens would be closed in a cost-cutting measure. The agency put those plans on hold after lawmakers raised concerns, promising to conduct more research on the potential effects on service.
Developed jointly by IRS, the presidentially appointed IRS Oversight Board and the Treasury-appointed National Taxpayer Advocate, the blueprint is intended to guide IRS' service-related research and investments.
Paul Jones, chairman of the IRS Oversight Board, said the strategic plan would allow IRS to maximize its service investments. "It is critical that the IRS understand what services taxpayers need and their preferences for receiving them," he said.
Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson also welcomed the research-based, taxpayer-focused approach, calling the report "a much-needed first step to delivering this service in ways that meet taxpayer needs."
Olson, who criticized the proposed closure of the assistance centers, said, "The blueprint provides the IRS a vehicle to ensure that taxpayer needs and preferences, including the need for face-to-face assistance, are not sacrificed to mere administrative convenience."
The document described the facilitated self-assistance model as augmenting face-to-face assistance with electronic and phone services. "The future TAC service delivery environment will include a combination of assisted and self-assisted services," it said. "At any point in the process of using the [facilitated self-assistance model], the taxpayer can request and will receive assisted service."
According to the blueprint, the 401 taxpayer assistance centers vary in service levels, convenience of the location and other features that affect their usefulness. The five-year strategic plan included a process for analyzing the centers to assess how they meet service demands, information that would be used in "future investment decisions."
The blueprint also included research results on who uses taxpayer services, segmented by factors such as age, socioeconomic status, special need, income and service type. The plan outlined new initiatives stemming from the research, including telephone service improvements such as more use of spoken commands and natural language, better use of language preference settings and providing estimated wait times.