United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-12-07 monographic deposited born digital 25 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-212 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212 P0b002ee1803792a7 f:d02212 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212 GAO-02-212 Customer service Taxpayers Telephone Agency missions Performance measures Internal Revenue Manual IRS TeleTax System Other Written Product A02443 Congress has been long concerned about the quality of service taxpayers received when calling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for help in understanding and meeting their tax obligations. IRS has taken steps to improve its responsiveness to the tens of millions of telephone calls it receives each year, such as expanding the hours of service and increasing the use of automation. In the 2000 tax filing season, the quality of telephone assistance was mixed and below IRS' long-term goal of providing world-class service. Overall, IRS made limited progress toward its goal of providing world-class telephone service. When compared with the 2000 tax filing season, access and accuracy performance for 2001 improved in two of six comparable measures, declined in one, and changed two percentage points or less in the others. When compared with 2001 performance targets, IRS did not meet any of its access goals, falling considerably below its target to shorten the time taxpayers spend waiting to speak with an assistor. Although assistors exceeded quality-of-service targets when responding to taxpayer questions, they did not meet higher targets for providing correct answers and account adjustments. IRS officials missed opportunities to analyze data to better understand the factors affecting telephone performance, including the actions it took to improve performance. IRS managers sometimes reached conclusions about key factors without conducting analyses to test their conclusions. IRS officials also missed opportunities to plan evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the actions taken to improve access and accuracy. Because of the limited progress made in the 2001 filing season, IRS cannot afford to miss opportunities to analyze performance data and evaluate improvement actions. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212.pdf GAO-02-212 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-212 Other Written Product GAO-02-212; IRS Telephone Assistance: Limited Progress and Missed Opportunities to Analyze Performance in the 2001 Filing Season; Customer service Taxpayers Telephone Agency missions Performance measures Internal Revenue Manual IRS TeleTax System Public Law 103-62