Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991 TAG: 9103210086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
That is, if you can get your call through. The General Accounting Office said that only 42 percent of calls placed to the IRS through March 9 had connected.
"That answer rate is better than last year's but well below the 61 percent answer rate for the 1989 filing season," GAO Associate Director Jennie S. Stathis told the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.
That was about the only less-than-bright spot in the GAO's assessment of how the IRS is doing in this filing season. After assessing IRS taxpayer service, distribution of forms and processing of returns, Stathis said, "We saw little to give us cause for concern."
At this time a year ago, chances of getting the correct answer to a telephoned tax question were about 76 percent. That, in turn, was considerably better than the 63 percent in 1989, when some IRS offices were right less than half the time.
The IRS set a goal of 85 percent accuracy this year. The GAO said the target was reached during its two-week check of the answers given by IRS telephone "assistors."
Those are IRS employees, many of them temporaries, who are given at least six weeks of training in tax law. The GAO said one reason for improvement in the accuracy rate is that the IRS has completed a training manual to guide assistors in questioning callers for more information before answering the question.
Because of budget cuts, the IRS has about 6 percent fewer staffers working in taxpayer services, including the telephone system, than a year earlier.
The IRS has processed about 72 percent of returns received this year, compared with 71 percent at this time a year ago.
by CNB