A new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) finds that key metrics used by the IRS to measure call center performance don’t accurately reflect the taxpayer experience. 

For the 2024 filing season, the IRS reported an 88 percent level of service (LOS) and an average wait time of 3 minutes. However, these figures only apply to 33 Accounts Management phone lines, which is roughly two-thirds of the calls the IRS answers. For the remaining one-third of calls, routed through other business units, TIGTA found average wait times as high as 19 minutes, with significantly lower LOS.

The report also highlights that the IRS does not publicly report full-year data for LOS or average wait times. Across all live assistance lines throughout the year. The IRS disagreed, stating that broader reporting could confuse taxpayers and create administrative burden. TIGTA responded that transparency is a basic expectation, especially when setting service benchmarks tied to funding. 

As of full year 2024, IRS assisters answered more than 30 million calls. But the quality and consistency of that service remain uneven. TIGTA’s findings suggest that meaningful improvements require not just staffing or technology upgrades, but more complete and accurate public reporting.