海角大神

Taxpayers need help. So does the IRS.

Early this month, when Virginia resident Casey Lewis was in a bind over how to pay her tax bill, she tried dialing the Internal Revenue Service. She was hoping to set up a payment plan with the IRS for a significant amount 鈥� $1,600 鈥� that she hadn鈥檛 expected to owe.

Online efforts with the agency had already failed her. 鈥淵our website keeps locking me out because it claims some of my info is wrong (but doesn鈥檛 tell me what!),鈥� Ms. Lewis posted on Twitter.

Trying by phone didn鈥檛 work any better: After 80 minutes on hold, she felt she had to hang up.

Ms. Lewis is far from alone in having a tough experience while trying to be a responsible taxpayer.

About 4 in 10 phone calls to the IRS go unanswered, staffing and budgets have declined, and the agency patches its databases together with software that dates back as far as the presidency of John F. Kennedy, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told members of Congress in hearings last week.

The issue is not just an annoyance. It can mean lost time and money for American taxpayers. And finance experts say it can affect something near the heart of any democratic government: public trust in, and compliance with, the system of collecting revenue for public programs.

In the United States, that trust doesn鈥檛 appear to be near a breaking point, but experts say it shouldn鈥檛 be taken for granted. Both a tax 鈥渃ompliance gap鈥� and weak public ratings for the IRS signal that, at a minimum, there鈥檚 plenty of room for improvement.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to have enough trust so that most people will pay what they owe, most of the time,鈥� says Alan Viard, a tax-policy expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

鈥楢 delicate balance鈥�

Even if citizens may disagree with elements of fiscal policy, that bedrock of trust hinges on people feeling the tax system created by Congress is 鈥渇air enough to be legitimate,鈥� Mr. Viard says. It also hinges on the tax-collection agency being perceived as effective: reining in cheating while also being helpful rather than harassing honest taxpayers.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 kind of a delicate balance,鈥� Mr. Viard says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a clear need here for additional enforcement and for additional service.鈥�

Many other tax-policy experts agree on that general point. Officials and workers at the agency say the same.

鈥淲hen I started at the IRS, we had approximately 35 revenue officers in the Milwaukee area. ... Today we have approximately six,鈥� says Doreen Greenwald, a 34-year IRS worker who is also a local union president for the National Treasury Employees Union. 鈥淎nd from my perspective, our work has increased based on a lot of the complexities of the tax law, as well as the work itself is more complex.鈥�

This is a year of particularly high stress for the agency and American taxpayers alike.

It鈥檚 the first tax-filing season under Republican-passed tax changes signed by President Donald Trump in 2017. While broadly cutting individual and business taxes, the law has also transformed the tax code in ways that many Americans are only now grappling with. And the IRS is still in the process of clarifying the tax law for taxpayers and accountants by preparing detailed guidance on the changes.

Despite that, the positive news is that for millions of Americans the tax-filing process in recent weeks has gone smoothly. The gap between what taxpayers owe and what the IRS receives is large聽鈥� about , roughly 12% of owed revenue聽鈥� yet the U.S. remains a leader on tax compliance compared with many other nations.

鈥淲e have the greatest tax system in the entire world,鈥� Ms. Greenwald says. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 based mostly on a voluntary compliance system.鈥�

Signs of strain

Surveys have found that the vast majority of Americans view taxpaying as a civic duty. And by some polls, the IRS has been edging in public esteem.聽Still, signs of strain are clear:聽

• The IRS ranks among federal agencies for its customer service.
• President Trump鈥檚 for the IRS would be a 1.5% increase (with a $362 million boost separately planned for enforcement), but the agency鈥檚 budget is after adjusting for inflation. 聽
• A seven-year hiring freeze starting in 2011 strained morale and has left a high share of workers near retirement.
• A six-year plan to overhaul IRS computer systems is underway, but the agency is beset by relentless cyberattacks on the Treasury鈥檚 troves of money and taxpayer information.
• Audits of questionable tax returns have plunged even more deeply than the overall cuts in staff.

Some critics say the agency鈥檚 woes stem partly from a deliberate attack on its funding by Republican lawmakers, channeling the anti-government spirit of the tea party movement in 2010 and beyond.

But some of the latest Republican rhetoric has been about improving the agency, not abolishing it (as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had called for as a presidential candidate in 2016).

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., spoke in last week鈥檚 congressional hearing about how the closure of a taxpayer-assistance office was affecting his constituents.聽Commissioner Rettig cited 鈥渦nexpected recent retirements鈥� for the center鈥檚 closure.聽

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., asked about whether the agency needed help in finding cybersecurity professionals (yes, he was told) and about the implications of the tax gap for public trust. Millions of taxpayers 鈥渨ant to get it right, and it really bugs them when someone is ripping the system off,鈥� Senator Lankford said.

Commissioner Rettig agreed, calling for an enforcement presence in 鈥渁s many聽neighborhoods as possible.鈥澛�(And in a separate hearing with House members, he acknowledged the need 鈥渢o get the audit rates up for the more wealthy taxpayers ... by taking a strong look at the issues that I am aware of that wealthy individuals might engage in,鈥� such as pass-through entities, which allow many firms to lower their tax rates by reporting income on individual returns.)

Assistance deferred

Better customer service is the other side of the coin.

鈥淚ts not unusual for me to be on hold for an hour and half or more,鈥� or to not even be offered the option of waiting on hold, says Deborah Bechtel, who says she often calls the IRS in her work as an enrolled agent helping taxpayers near Albany, New York.

When she does get through, she says the workers are doing their best to be helpful, but getting an issue resolved is far from assured.

For Ms. Lewis, the taxpayer from Norfolk, Virginia, the outcome of her efforts wasn鈥檛 a happy one. After failing to get through by phone, she ended up selling her late mother鈥檚 jewelry to enable payment of her whole remaining tax bill for 2018, she says in a text interview online.

She, for one, would like to see the IRS get more funding.

鈥淚 think the IRS could definitely use a bigger slice of the budget,鈥� says Ms. Lewis, who works as an administrative assistant for a health insurance company. 聽鈥淚 honestly feel that [the] system is tilted to favor the very rich while setting up roadblocks for the poor and working class.鈥�

She points to the way lobbying by the tax-software industry has聽鈥� so far at least聽鈥� put up roadblocks to the idea of a federal 鈥渇ree-file鈥� system that would let all taxpayers largely rely on the IRS to prepare their taxes using information in its databanks (with the opportunity for individuals to amend IRS-prepared forms).

鈥淣o one will ever enjoy paying taxes,鈥澛燤s. Lewis says. 鈥淏ut making it less onerous for consumers could help.鈥�