June 17, 2022 - Darren Guillot, IRS Deputy Commissioner of Small Business/Self Employed Collection & Operations Support, told reporters Friday that the agency’s expanded use of voice bots and chatbots will allow the IRS workforce to assist more taxpayers over the phone.

The IRS earlier this year answered about three out of every 10 calls from taxpayers.

IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said the automation initiative is part of a wider effort to improve taxpayer experience at the agency.

“We continue to look for ways to better assist taxpayers, and that includes helping people avoid waiting on hold or having to make a second phone call to get what they need,” Rettig said in a statement.

Guillot said taxpayers can name their own price for the payment plan, as long as a taxpayer pays their balance within the timeframe of the relevant collection statute or up to 72 months.

Once a payment plan is set up, the bot will close the taxpayer’s account without any further enforcement action from the IRS.

“Those taxpayers didn’t wait on hold for one second,” Guillot said.

“We never lose sight of our first interaction with every single taxpayer is never enforcement. It’s a last resort. Our first effort is always around that word ‘service,’ and trying to help customers understand the tax law and almost always work out a resolution with them meaningfully,” Guillot said.

Here is the link to the full article in “Federal News Network”:

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/artificial-intelligence/2022/06/irs-expands-ai-powered-bots-to-set-up-payment-plans-with-taxpayers-over-the-phone/