Taxation & Estate Planning

IRS collectors moved to answering questions on economic stimulus refund

By howardlevy

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has outlined the costs to the IRS collection function in implementing President Bush’s Economic Stimulus Refunds. 

Of the roughly 2,000 employees in the IRS Automated Collection Service, the GAO report stated that approximately half were moved in this spring from collecting delinquent taxes to answering taxpayer calls about the economic stimulus refund.  

Here’s the impact of moving ACS employees to answering refund questions:

1.   The IRS suspended the issuance of ACS generated levys on taxpayer accounts due to the workforce reallocation.  The IRS did not want to send out collection notices without the staffing to implement them.

2.   Lost collection revenue to the IRS was estimated to be $565 million. 

3.   Level of service on inbound telephone calls dropped.  Callers hung up 43% more often while waiting to speak to an IRS assistor.  

Read the full report here.

Full post as published by IRS and the Law on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).