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Some IRS Practitioner Service Hotlines Are Back Online

Posted on May 14, 2020

The IRS’s practitioner priority service and e-services help desk hotlines are active again as the agency takes preliminary steps toward reopening.

Both hotlines went live the week of May 11 after being shut down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. And while the hotlines aren’t fielding questions from the general public, David Werlich of Ryan & Werlich CPAs said the move should help practitioners during return filing season, with the deadline roughly eight weeks away.

With a list of new challenges presented by the coronavirus, Werlich told Tax Notes May 13 that he welcomed the two hotlines being back in service as a means of addressing client questions and performing other tax matters during this period of unusual circumstances.

“When they’re down, they’re certainly missed,” Werlich said of the hotlines, adding that operational changes resulting from the pandemic — for example, the extended filing deadline and having his staff work from home throughout filing season for the first time in many years — have created challenges unique to 2020.

“It’s like trying to work with one hand tied behind your back,” Werlich said.

The hotlines came back into service less than a week after a May 6 letter from five members of Congress from Oklahoma asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to reopen telephone helplines and taxpayer assistance centers.

Like countless other entities, the IRS's operations have been limited since late March, when it issued a directive ordering tens of thousands of its employees to work from home and halted several help desk lines, including the ones named above, in light of the threat of COVID-19.

Enrolled agent Kathryn Morgan of Puzzled By Taxes LLC noted that the two reopened hotlines are “completely and totally backlogged at the moment” because practitioners are all trying to call in at the same time.

Morgan said that although she welcomes the two hotlines being active again, navigating between different branches of the IRS remains difficult because of the limited operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m not complaining; it’s better than nothing,” Morgan said.

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