Contacting the IRS

No one on Usenet has any ability to help you if you don't offer any clues as to what the issue is.

If you timely filed your tax returns and have proof, like a receipt for certified mail (you don't need to pay for the return receipt), and IRS made very serious errors on data entry, and you responded to any IRS correspondence on a timely basis, and again you have a certified mail receipt, which did not resolve the problem, then you should contact your Member of Congress or one of your Senators. They have a person on staff who is liason to IRS to help resolve constituent issues. They are going to make you open the case with their office in writing and you'll likely need to send copies of all your paperwork.

That's a last resort.

Maybe if you weren't being so cagey here on Usenet and properly described the issue, one of the tax professionals could help answer your question or give you a very specific method of submitting information to IRS to resolve the issue.

Yes, we've all had the experience of being dumped from the call queue before a live person answers. And we've had plenty of experience in which a live person answers eventually only to inform us that he must transfer the call to a tax specialist for actual assistance, which means waiting in yet another call queue.

I think the OP was just asking a general question (shared by many of us) of what is the best way to contact the IRS if, for example, you just have a question or need clarification on something. If you are already involved in some kind of dispute or back-and-forth with the IRS, I think the means of communication will probably flow from the specific facts of your situation. But if you just have a question or issue that you want to ask the IRS about, how do you do it? Calling on the phone seems futile. You can't really email them. I don't think their website has an "Ask the IRS" function. I suppose you could drop by an IRS office, but you probably need an appointment for that. So what do you do?

When I'm stuck for an answer about taxes, I ask a specific question right here in this very newsgroup. There are a number of people here who go out of their way to help.

What about using the IRS's "Tax Advocate Service" ?

See

One good way to contact the IRS is to visit your local IRS office and talk to someone in person. I have found that to be a very practical and helpful step.

Before visiting an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center for in-person help, you need to call 844-545-5640 to schedule an appointment. To find your local office and other information you will need before you go, go here:

Sorry I didn't explain myself clearly enough. Nothing cagey at all. I'm not talking about getting dumped from a queue because I was too impatient to wait. I'm talking about not getting put into the queue in the first place.

I haven't been able to use the phone with the IRS since Covid. After 5 minutes of hoop jumping, I'm told to ' ... try again later. Goodbye.'

Since it happens so often to me, I thought the experience was universal.

BTW, this call was in response to a notice from the IRS which the client has until 11/04/22 to respond or forfeit the $1,400 for the 3rd stimulus that the IRS appears to have deposited to someone else's account.

Thanks.

This has worked for me lately. I set aside 5 minutes to call the IRS. I know what the voice prompt codes are to reach the queue I want. I dial the call, as soon as it is "answered", I enter the codes to reach the queue. In 20-30 seconds I get either the "call back later" or I'm in the queue. As soon as I hear "call back later", I immediately hang up and call back. I repeat until the 5 minutes is up and if I haven't made it through to the queue, I give up and go back to work on something else. When I reach a break point, I'll try again for another 5 minutes. More often than not, I'll get through within the first or second 5 minute block. Lately, I seem to be reaching the call-back option where the IRS calls you back in 29 minutes. Why "29" minutes, I don't know, but they're pretty good about meeting that deadline.

This works on the PPS line. I don't know if it will work on other IRS phone lines.

BTW, for those who use EnQ, the IRS CSRs are authorized to hang-up as soon as they recognize that the call is placed by a calling service. See IRM §21.1.1.8.1.

Ira Smilovitz, EA Leonia, NJ

In my experience with the IRS (which is not huge) letters they send out like that have the name and telephone number of the person assigned to the case, printed on the upper right hand side of the first page. That's who you call, not their general number (which has been pretty much a useless thing to do recently as far as I can tell).

This is just an anecdote, and about 10 years old, but I needed a tax transcript and I don't remember why I couldn't do it online but I went to the IRS office, which closed at 4PM and I got there around 2:45 and there was no one in the lobby. I met the most uncivil-civil servant I have ever remembered, who would not let me in, nor explain why I couldn't get in over an hour before closing time, nor let me leave a written note, nor nothing. So I drove to my congressman's district office. The much-more-civil servant there said she could help me, and made a remark about how the IRS was underfunded and not giving very good service. And I made some allusion to the fact that my congressman was Tea Party and one of the people most responsible for the underfunding of the IRS. The aide just gave a wry smile as if to say "Yeah, that's for sure, but what can I say?"

She got me the transcript.

This is a great reminder that when trying to resolve an issue with the IRS, whether it be a missing refund or a 1099 problem or whatever, the local Congressional office is often an excellent resource. Sadly, many people (including myself, I'm embarrassed to say) don't even the know the name or address of their local Congress person.

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