IRS unveils $80bn plan to improve customer service and slash call wait times

Taxpayers could soon be paying their returns with crypto as the IRS implements an $80 billion plan to revolutionize the outdated agency.

The mega-package promises to improve customer service, revolutionize the IRS's 1960s-style technology and more heavily audit wealthy families and businesses.

The long-beleaguered agency claims it is also getting to grips with what experts call its 'unacceptably poor' customer service standards, adding its has slashed the wait times on its customer service line from 27 minutes to four.

IRS commissioner Danny Werfel - who took to the post last month- said the funding will facilitate a five-year plan to digitize the tax-filing process and clear its paper backlogs.

It means by 2026 taxpayers and third parties should be able to make payments through online accounts with the option to pay via bank account, credit or debit card or through a digital wallet.

In theory it means a taxpayer could pay the return via crypto, which is hosted in digital wallets, Forbes reports.

A graphic shows the breakdown of spending from the IRS's new $80 billion plan to improve customer service 

The IRS said the digital service should help customers to identify their mistakes before filing returns and upgrade their filing errors more quickly.

'Now that we have long-term funding, the IRS has an opportunity to transform our operations and provide the service that people deserve,” Werfel told reporters. 

It comes after years of heavy criticism directed at the IRS for its understaffing and poor customer service standards which were exacerbated during the pandemic. 

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote in a blog post: 'Developing a plan and successfully implementing it are two different things. 

'But, for the first time in my 40 years as a tax professional, the tax administration stars seem to be aligning.'

She added that customer service standards at the IRS had been 'unacceptably poor' well before the pandemic. 

The Strategic Operating Plan states that $4.3 billion will be allocated to improving the service for taxpayers while $3.2 billion is reserved to 'quickly resolve taxpayers' issues.'

The agency said it had already spent some of the money earmarked for customer service by hiring 5,000 phone assistors ahead of the 2023 filing season. 

And taxpayers have been able to respond to certain IRS notices online since February. 

Werfel also alleged that the agency now answers between 80 and 90 percent of calls, up from 17 percent in the 2022 fiscal year. 

He claimed that the average call wait time had also been slashed from 27 minutes to four.

However when Dailymail.com tried to reach operators this morning, the wait time took 15 minutes 29 seconds.

And that did not include the time spent navigating the agency's phoneline's endless automated questions. 

Werfel - a business consultant who earned a $6.6 million paycheck last year - took up the role of IRS commissioner last year 

Werfel was nominated to the role by President Joe Biden 

The bulk of the plan budget - $47.4 billion - will focus on expanding 'enforcement on the wealthy and businesses.'

A further $12.4 billion will be focused on delivering cutting-edge technology, $8.2 billion is allocated to recruitment of a 'high-skilled, diverse workforce' and $3.9 billion will be spent on energy security.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the agency is moving to a 'fully digital correspondence process' and aims to eliminate its paper backlog within five years. 

What's more it is focused on closing the tax gap to reduce the budget deficit. 

It plans to do this focusing on auditing tax returns for wealthy families, large corporations and complex partnerships.

But the plan drew fresh complaints from Republicans who want to repeal the IRS funding as part of their demands for raising the $31.4 trillion federal debt ceiling.

Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said the IRS 'plans to deploy an army of tens of thousands of IRS agents to increase audits on Montana families and reach into the pocketbooks of Americans.'

Werfel sought to debunk erroneous Republican claims that the funding will create an army of 87,000 armed agents to harass Americans on their taxes. 

He said that the percentage of Criminal Investigation staff would not change from its current proportion of about 3 percent of the IRS workforce.

Only around 2,100 Special Agents in the Criminal Investigation unit are authorized to carry firearms, according to a Reuters.

Werfel - a business consultant who earned a $6.6 million paycheck last year - was nominated into the role of IRS commissioner last month by President Joe Biden with a view to clean-up the organization.

He had previously led the cross-government effort under President Obama to dole out $700 billion in stimulus money following the 2008 economic meltdown.  

The job is notoriously difficult to fill due to the logistical complications of running an agency with roughly 80,000 employees.