Tax Administration

Making IRS' Telephone Systems Easier to Use Should Help Taxpayers Gao ID: GGD-96-74 March 11, 1996

Three prototype interactive telephone systems--designed to reduce correspondence between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and taxpayers and to make IRS more accessible--suffer from too many menu options and other problems. Resolving these shortcomings is essential if IRS is to achieve its goal of handling 45 percent of taxpayer calls by using interactive phone systems. IRS' telephone-routing system requires taxpayers to remember up to eight menu options, even though the contractor guidelines called for no more than four, and does not allow taxpayers to return to the main menu when they make a mistake or want to resolve other issues. IRS has yet to do a cost-benefit analysis of the use of multiple toll-free numbers, which IRS officials had recommended as a solution to the problem of too many menu options. Providing taxpayers with a written, detailed step-by-step description on how to use the menu options might be another way to make the telephone systems more user friendly. IRS complied with government security requirements when developing its first three interactive telephone systems. However, future interactive systems will allow taxpayers greater access to tax information, and more-secure features, such as a personal identification number, may be needed to protect taxpayer data.

GAO found that: (1) successful IRS implementation of interactive telephone systems is critical to improving IRS customer service, since IRS expects taxpayer telephone assistance to double as IRS tries to move towards a paperless system; (2) three new IRS phone systems are not user-friendly, which may cause taxpayers to use the new systems less; (3) the new phone systems' routing system has too many menu options and does not permit callers to return to the main menu if necessary; (4) IRS is aware of the systems' menu problem, but it believes the multiple options are necessary because tax issues are complex; (5) IRS is considering providing multiple toll-free numbers to alleviate its menu problem, but providing advance instructions on the menu options may be more cost-effective; (6) IRS has complied with Department of the Treasury and IRS security requirements to protect taxpayer data and is investigating ways to increase security as taxpayers gain greater access to their tax accounts; (7) IRS process owners have been designated late and have not provided all requirements information needed for the phone systems' development; and (8) an IRS cost-benefit analysis has shown that the phone systems' benefit-to-cost ratio is three to one.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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