IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel Asked Point Blank About Poor Customer Service For Taxpayers

5 months ago

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) questioned IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel about the failure of constituents to get service.

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Transcript

00:00 Thank you so much for being here today.

00:02 When you came before the committee for your nomination hearing, you noted in questions

00:07 for the record that if confirmed, it will be a priority of mine to ensure IRS employees

00:14 are where they need to be to carry out IRS's mission most effectively.

00:21 Mr. Commissioner, over a year later, I continue to hear that my constituents are having trouble

00:27 obtaining assistance from the Internal Revenue Service.

00:31 My office, like I'm assuming all of my colleagues' offices, still regularly receives complaints

00:38 from Hoosiers that the local IRS offices are empty, representatives aren't consistently

00:46 answering the phones, and when someone at the IRS does pick up, there's often no resolution

00:53 to the issue at hand.

00:55 So Commissioner, I know you're here today touting some customer service improvements

01:00 and advocating for additional funds for the IRS.

01:06 One of the reasons you were put in this position, I think the general perception was, in looking

01:12 at your background, you're a results-oriented guy, and I know that it's your objective,

01:18 your team's objective, to make sure you achieve results.

01:23 I am curious what results you're seeing that indicate success regarding taxpayer services,

01:30 however.

01:31 Frankly, the IRS has received billions of dollars in supplemental funding, and yet two

01:38 years later, we're still seeing some poor customer results manifested in the feedback

01:44 I get from taxpayers.

01:45 So it's my responsibility to press a bit on that issue.

01:49 I suspect you're going to quote me some data on phone answering rates.

01:56 Unfortunately, those phone answering rates aren't particularly instructive to us because

02:04 those answered phone calls aren't actually leading to resolutions, by my estimation,

02:11 which is why I continue to hear from my constituents all sorts of lamentations and upset pertaining

02:23 to the service from the IRS.

02:25 So I'll just ask you, Mr. Commissioner, to give you an opportunity to respond.

02:29 Why is the IRS just focused on hiring employees to answer the phones instead of focusing on

02:36 hiring where taxpayer problems remain the most significant, such as the processing of

02:42 paper returns, responding to correspondence, and resolving taxpayer disputes and issues?

02:49 So let me start by saying, Senator, I will say it here.

02:52 We have more work to do.

02:55 We want every taxpayer in America to feel like if they need the IRS, we're there for

03:01 them, that we answer the call, that the person on the other end of the line or the person

03:07 in the walk-in center or the tool on irs.gov meets their needs.

03:13 And we have not achieved that goal.

03:15 So there's no victory lap here.

03:18 There's a lot more work to do.

03:20 And as you can imagine, as the IRS Commissioner, 99 out of 100 voices I hear from taxpayers

03:28 are concerns.

03:30 I know that a lot of taxpayers are being served well.

03:33 I know that things are trending better.

03:35 I'm not going to cite all the statistics, but I know that we are answering more calls.

03:40 We are getting more people into those walk-in centers in the Hoosier State.

03:45 We are serving more people in the Hoosier State than we ever have served before.

03:49 But that doesn't mean we're done.

03:52 We have more work to do.

03:53 And we are prioritizing some of the areas that you raised, where we don't answer the

03:59 calls effectively, are on some of these topics that we are going to focus on, like victims

04:05 of identity theft.

04:06 We need to do more on that.

04:08 And some of your colleagues on both sides of the aisle have raised really pressing questions

04:13 where there are still gaps in the ability of the IRS to serve.

04:16 But I want to build on the momentum.

04:19 Things are getting better.

04:20 Things are improving on all dimensions of customer service.

04:24 But the race is not finished.

04:26 We're going to stay on top of this issue.

04:31 As you know, we have a five-minute question and answer format on this committee.

04:36 And we've got roughly 15 seconds left, certainly not enough to continue with this line of questioning.

04:44 I've put on the record my concerns.

04:47 I've heard from you that we should remain hopeful, but continue to vigorously oversee

04:53 the IRS.

04:55 And I will certainly do the latter on behalf of my constituents.

04:59 Thank you.

05:00 Thank you.

05:01 Senator Young, your point about vigorous oversight, that's what our job is all about.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel Asked Point Blank About Poor Customer Service For Taxpayers

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