The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has hired 4,000 customer service representatives to provide phone assistance for the 2023 taxpayer filing season, as part of a larger initiative to make agency-wide improvements.
Funds for the additional workforce are sourced from the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocates $79.6 billion to the IRS through fiscal year 2031, the IRS said Thursday.
The agency plans to recruit 1,000 more people in customer support by the end of the year and complete their training by Feb. 20, 2023. They are expected to study taxpayer rights, respond to tax inquiries, and address technical account management issues.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said that the pandemic has “overwhelmed” their phone lines, but they are “moving quickly to use new funding to help taxpayers during the busy tax season.”
He added the agency will have more phone support “than any time in recent history” next year and encouraged taxpayers to visit the agency’s website for tax-related questions as an alternative.
Aside from CSRs, the IRS also intends to boost its manpower in areas such as information technology and compliance. Job opportunities may be posted on USAjobs.gov in the coming weeks.
