A new pilot program from the IRS aims to thwart line-jumping services that let certain practitioners, who pay a fee to a private company, skip ahead of others on the phone line.
In its newsletter to tax practitioners, the IRS said it is piloting a program that requires callers to the Practitioner Priority Service phone line to repeat phrases before speaking with an IRS representative.
The pilot program uses speech recognition to help ensure a live person is calling rather than a mechanical device. The new process intends to improve customer service by reducing unnecessary wait times, the IRS explained. Read more.