Accounting Today posted an article this morning claiming that undercover investigators from the Treasury Department were kept waiting for sometimes up to 4 hours at some Taxpayer Assistance Centers. In a few of the cases, they were even told they would have to come back the next day because there were already too many taxpayers in line for the day.
Taxpayer Assistance Centers do not allows allow the taxpayers to make appointments. This causes many taxpayers to wait in line anywhere from no time to 4 hours or more! Some of the auditors would go to the centers in the early afternoon only to be turned away and were told to come back on another day. One auditor even went in the early morning, only to find out he was told they had stopped giving out numbers for the day!
In response to the report, the IRS officials agreed with the recommendations that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration gave. Hopefully some real changes will be made soon that will help to alleviate the long lines the taxpayers must wait in. You can read the entire accounting today article here.