Last year, tax preparer Kathy Brown called the Internal Revenue Service, and took her daughter to a gymnastics class while her husband stayed on hold, ready to patch in Brown once an employee picked up. Seven hours later, after sitting through the gymnastics class and returning home, the Warsaw, Ky.-based enrolled agent found her husband still waiting.
Last week, Brown spoke to an IRS staffer less than 30 minutes after dialing the agency. “The phones are just being answered, which is amazing,” said Brown, president of the National Association of Enrolled Agents. She’s started to notice it, and she’s heard the same the chatter from colleagues. As recently as a month ago “you could call and not get anybody all day.” This year’s filing season starts on Monday, Jan. 23. That’s when the IRS begins accepting and processing 2022’s income-tax returns. The agency — buoyed by the start of an extra $80 billion funding influx over a decade — is hoping Brown’s experience is going to be replicated many, many times over. Now it’s a question what difference all the hiring, planning and technological upgrades will make once the returns start pouring in, along with all the taxpayer inquiries and extra documents that come with it.
“The IRS is expecting more than 168 million individual tax returns, and, as of la …