Administrative Burden

Congress has consistently cut the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget since 2010, despite increased demands on the agency. As a result, citizens calling the IRS to get help filing might be greeted with a “courtesy disconnect”—8.8 million callers were disconnected in 2015. In 2010, about 75 percent of calls got through and the average wait time was eleven minutes. By 2015, only 37 percent got through and the average wait time was twenty-three minutes.