The IRS Taxpayer Experience Officer says: Open your email already

The Tax Authorities are on a charm offensive, as long as you don’t earn too much money.

After a multi-year pandemic hiatus, the agency is restarting his collection efforts, underscoring his intention to go after the high earners who are most in debt. On Thursday, the tax authorities said it sent letters to more than 25,000 people with incomes over $1 million who had not filed tax returns since 2017.

All others, the agency emphasizes, will benefit from the $80 billion which the agency won through the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022. The year before, the IRS named 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 guards placed a wand on my shoes. After a few beeps they scanned my stocking feet. After getting the proper badge – with the words “Escort Only” in the largest font – I had an hour with Mr. Corbin. What follows is an abridged version, edited for clarity, of our conversation – and his advice for taxpayers like you and me.

So what does a philosophy student like you do in a place like this?

My wife had been studying philosophy for 25 years and I wanted her to date me.

I actually studied chemistry and philosophy, and to pay for my studies I worked nights for the tax authorities, having entered a work-study program at the age of 16. I remember applying to medical schools and talking to others about the costs. And my mother asked me what made me want to become a doctor. I really enjoy solving problems and helping people.

She wisely said to me, “Don’t you serve people at the tax authorities?” That’s when I started thinking more about government, and my job became a career.

Why was it necessary to create the role of Chief Experience Officer?

We really had to look at how people experience the Tax Authorities

One thing I’m really excited about and I think is a good measure of experience is a feature we’re mentioning call back the customer.

Here’s a measure of my success: We’ve already saved over 600,000 hours of people waiting this year.

The target This feature should be available to 95 percent of taxpayers who request assistance by July. Did you hit it?

We have exceeded 95 and are at 97 percent.

I’m very pleased to say that this year on our main phone line, if you’re in line, we’re answering the phone within five minutes on average. In fact, we are now at two minutes.

It’s only February.

It’s early in the filing season.

Talk to me on April 12.

I will do that.

Can the callback system predict approximately when someone will call me back later that day?

I don’t think this is the case right now, and I think this is an improvement I want.

When is the best time to call? Is it like trying to get concert tickets? earlierwhere you are on the line exactly one second before the sales time?

Tuesday to Thursday. Mondays are really tough phone days. People filing their taxes this weekend may not be able to file their taxes, or some people may have a little love note from the tax authorities 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 do you use it for that you hope people will notice first?

We have hired approximately 5,000 customer service representatives. We have also hired approximately 800 personal assistants. We’ve had what we call taxpayer experience days, where we are open on Saturdays in our physical walk-in centers. We do one a month during filing season.

We can also let our employees in the centers work longer, meaning we open earlier in the day and stay open later in the evening. This allows people with a 9-to-5 job to come in.

I hope people notice that you can talk to us now. We struggled during the pandemic. The payments with economic impact has us behind us in our normal work.

Here’s something on many people’s wish lists: being able to securely message about an issue, with the same person replying, so you don’t have to start over every time.

We’re already testing and learning about secure messaging with some of our enterprise customers. It may not be the same person who answers you, but I think we are very close to creating those journeys.

If I had to predict when I could do this myself, I would think of 2038. Will you put your hand on the Bible and promise something sooner?

I wouldn’t put my hand on the Bible just because so much of our ability to do things depends on the laws passed and the funding we have.

Heard. What are some tactical things people do wrong when trying to resolve issues with the IRS?

They get a letter or something from the tax authorities, but they don’t want to open it. They won’t read it. I’m being frank with you – that’s the most important thing. I want them to open the letter. Let’s figure out how to solve the problem.

Can’t you solve this by putting something like “We may owe you money” on the front of the envelope?

This is where the laws get tricky. Believe it or not, when we put on the front of the envelope that we owe you money, we are actually revealing something about you that we are not supposed to reveal, for everyone to see.

Even if it says ‘maybe’?

That’s a revelation.

How do you arrange your own taxes?

As an expert by experience, I want to know everything there is. I have used software packages. I did paper.

Do you have a favorite deduction that you have personally been able to deduct?

The standard deduction is probably my favorite. It’s one of the easier things people can relate to.

I recently spent time with teenage volunteers working as tax preparers. They have noted that the more money you make, the more and better access you have to deductions in this country. That doesn’t seem fair, so their question was: what’s going on there?

That’s a great question. We at the IRS enforce the tax laws. So that is really a conference question. But over the years, there have certainly been benefits and such available to most taxpayers.

In a perfect world, some of those teens will become a chartered accountant at 26 and come work for you at 32…

I love it already.

But if they become discouraged by the fairness of the system, how do you talk them out of 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 look at how the tax administration works in different ways together with the department and at De Heuvel. You can come in and become an experience officer.

We all play a role, whether you are a submitter or an employee.

Have you ever been checked?

I don’t think I can answer that question.

Is there a law? You’re allowed to reveal something about yourself, right?

Yes, but I wouldn’t reveal that about myself. My wife would kill me.