The Internal Revenue Service is on a charm offensive, as long as you don’t make too much money.
After a multiyear pandemic pause, the agency is rebooting its collection efforts, hitting its goal of chasing high-income earners with the most debt. On Thursday, says the IRS it’s sending letters to more than 25,000 people with more than $1 million in income who haven’t filed tax returns since 2017.
Everyone else, the agency insists, will benefit from $80 billion that the agency won through the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022. The year before that, the IRS appointed Ken Corbin as its first chief taxpayer experience officer.
So what does he do all day? I went to the agency’s headquarters in Washington to find out, which was an experience in itself.
First, the security guards put a wand on my shoe. After a few beeps, they scanned my stocking feet. With the proper badge — with the words “Escort Only” in the largest font — I had an hour with Mr. Corbin. What follows is a condensed version, edited for clarity, of our conversation — and his advice for taxpayers like you and me.
So what’s a philosophy major like you doing in a place like this?
My husband of 25 years is a philosophy major, and I want him to date me.
I’m actually a chemistry and philosophy major, and to pay for college, I work nights for the IRS, where I started at age 16 in a work-study program. I remember applying to medical schools and talking to others about the cost. And my mother asked me why I wanted to be a doctor. I really like solving problems and helping people.
He smartly said to me, “Don’t you serve people at the IRS?” At that point, I started thinking about government, and my work turned into a career.
Why was it necessary to create the role of chief experience officer?
We really need to look at how people experience the IRS
One thing that I’m really excited about that I think is a good measure of experience is a feature that we call customer callback.
Here’s a measure of success for me: We’ve saved over 600,000 hours this year alone from people having to wait.
The purpose will have that feature available for 95 percent of taxpayers requesting help by July. did you hit
We passed 95 and are at 97 percent.
I’m really happy to say that on our main phone line this year, when you’re in line, we answer the phone in less than five minutes, on average. In fact, we’re at two minutes now.
It’s only February.
It’s still early in the filing season.
Talk to me on April 12.
I will do that.
Can the callback system predict roughly when someone will call me later that day?
I don’t think it’s happening now, and I think that’s an improvement I like.
When is the best time to call? It’s like trying to get concert tickets once upon a timewhere you hit the phone line exactly one second before the sale time?
Tuesday through Thursday. Mondays are really heavy phone days. Weekend people may or may not file their taxes, or some people may have gotten little love note from the IRS and don’t want to open it until the weekend, when they can think about it a bit.
The agency has a lot of new money available. You must be licking your chops. What are you using it for that you hope people notice first?
We employ approximately 5,000 customer service representatives. We also hired about 800 in-person assistants. We had what we called day of taxpayer experience, where we are open every Saturday at our brick-and-mortar walk-in centers. We do one a month during the filing season.
We also enable our employees to work longer hours at the centers, which means we open earlier in the day and stay open at night. That allows people with 9-to-5 jobs to enter.
I hope people notice that you can talk to us now. During the pandemic, it is difficult for us. Economic impact payments we are behind in our normal work.
Here’s something from many people’s wish lists: the ability to send messages securely about a problem, with the same person responding so you don’t have to start over each time.
We’re already testing and learning with secure messaging with some of our business customers. It may not be the same person answering you, but I think we’re getting close to making those journeys.
If I had to guess when I could do it myself, I’d guess 2038. Want to put your hand on a Bible and commit to something sooner?
I’m not going to put my hand on a Bible, just because a lot of our ability to do things depends on the laws that are passed and the funding that we have.
Heard. What tactics do people get wrong when trying to solve problems with the IRS?
They get a letter or something from the IRS, and they won’t open it. They won’t read it. I’ll be honest with you — that’s the No. 1 thing. I want them to open the letter. Let’s find out how to solve the issue.
Couldn’t you solve this by putting something like “We Might Owe You Money” on the front of the envelope?
This is where the laws get tricky. Believe it or not, if we put on the front of the envelope that we owe you money, we’re actually revealing something about you that we’re not allowed to reveal, that anyone can see.
Even say “can”?
That is a disclosure.
How do you do your own taxes?
As an experienced officer, I like to know all kinds of things that are out there. I used software packages. I’m on paper.
Do you have a favorite discount that you’ve personally gotten?
The standard deduction is probably my favorite. It’s one of those that people can relate to more easily.
Recently I spent time with teenage volunteers working as tax preparers. They note that the more money you earn, the more and better access you have to deductions in this country. That doesn’t seem fair, so their question is this: What’s in it?
That’s a very good question. We at the IRS administer the tax laws. So that’s really a congressional question. But over the years, there are certainly benefits and things available for most taxpayers.
In a perfect world, some of those teenagers would be certified public accountants by 26 and working for you at 32 …
i love it
But if the fairness of the system discourages them, how do you talk them out of the discouragement?
I would tell them that there are different ways you can be part of the tax ecosystem and be an advocate. You can work for the IRS There is the Taxpayer Advocate Service, where you can work with the department and the Hill in different ways to see how tax administration works. You can come in and become an experience officer.
We all play a role, whether you’re a filer or an employee.
Have you been audited?
I don’t think I can answer that question.
is there a law? You can reveal about yourself, right?
Yes, but I will not reveal that about myself. My husband will kill me.
