Toll-Free Telephone Assistance
Fiscal Year
Calls Answered
TP Disconnects
(Abandons)
Busy Signals
(Overflows)
Calls to IRS
(Total Attempts)
Level of
Access*
Level of
Service**
1995
60,550,833
10,797,880
410,983,282
482,331,995
14.8%
12.6%
1996
65,528,231
13,501,880
185,276,609
264,306,720
29.9%
24.8%
19977
73,566,663
20,809,401
50,987,381
145,363,445
64.9%
50.6%
1998
69,689,197
20,194,355
10,035,389
99,918,941
90.0%
69.7%
1999
65,795,919
18,463,463
39,192,553
123,451,935
68.3%
53.3%
2000
57,345,221
16,675,970
20,604,835
94,626,026
78.2%
60.6%
2001
51,121,805
17,515,556
25,435,884
94,073,245
73.0%
54.3%

Source: Internal IRS reports. Some of the calls from FY 1999 onward reflect changes in IRS tracking systems and/or services which have added new "product" lines to what is covered.

* Level of access: extent to which taxpayers are able to get through (not get a busy signal). However, it does not take into account the extent to which taxpayers get into IRS' system but are put on hold and abandon their calls before an assistor comes on line. [GAO report, GGD-00-37, p. 25] Starting in FY 2001, some technical revisions made in measuring busy signals to better measure IRS's physical capacity to handle the calls.

** Level of service: considers abandoned calls as unsuccessful call attempts and, thus, measures the extent to which taxpayers are successful in reaching an assistor. [GAO report, GGD-00-37, p. 25]

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2002