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ItalianPrincess1217's avatar

How can I speak with a live person at the IRS?

Asked by ItalianPrincess1217 (9780 points ) February 29th, 2012 from iPhone

I need to speak with a real person at the IRS and I have tried everything that I can think of. Still no luck. I have called several numbers and the only thing it does is give me automated information! I’m very frustrated. Any idea of how to speak with a human instead of a machine?

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12 Answers

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

Two ways: Call from a speaker phone and figure you’ll be on hold 45 minutes or so. Go to one of your local IRS offices and talk with someone there. Look up the locations at the IRS website.

jaytkay's avatar

The 800 number isn’t working? When I had a messed up tax situation, I talked to IRS people on the phone a few times, and they were actually very patient and helpful.

Telephone Assistance for Individuals:
Toll-Free, 1–800-829–1040

IRS Telephone Assistance,,id=96730,00.html

Judi's avatar

You might have more luck calling around 6:00— 6:30 in the evening. Maybe even better Friday night if they’re open until 7:00. Most people aren’t thinking about taxes at that time and they might not be as busy. I have found that government call centers seem to answer better when they are open outside of normal business hours because no one really expects them to be open and they are less busy.

ItalianPrincess1217's avatar

I have tried all numbers listed and there is never any option to speak with a person. I tried every option and nothing leads me to a representative. It just says “to repeat this information press 4” then it disconnects.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@ItalianPrincess1217 One of the options should be to discuss personal taxes, choose that and the last option there should be to stay on the line for the next available representitive.

YoBob's avatar

Hmm… I guess you could just neglect to pay your taxes and then ignore the phone calls an email your receive for a year or so afterwords. Eventually they will probably send a real live person out to talk to you.

JLeslie's avatar

The way I have always been able to talk to a live person in the past is to not push any buttons, and play like I am on a rotary phone. This has worked with social security, INS, and IRS in the past. Actually, I don’t remember having to do it with IRS, but the last time I called them was over 5 years ago, the others I mentioned I have called as little as 6 months ago.

JLeslie's avatar

By the way if they answer in Spanish, just ask if they speak English, they all do. For some reason they assume someone with a rotary phone speaks Spanish I guess? It makes no sense to me since they are likely to be newer immigrants if they don’t speak English, and more likely to not have a rotary phone. Most people with that type of phone are people who are over sixty and still have their original phones from years past.

softtop67's avatar

Dont file for a few years they will be happy to come and speak to you :-)

creative1's avatar

I made it through but I had to go through as if I owed money to them and choosing those options, you sit on hold for hours and hours, I think once it took a little over 2 hours to get an actual person. I ended up getting transferred to someone and they gave me the options to push to get a person on the other automated system to get through. You then sit on hold again. If you call even a minute before they open you won’t get anything but their vru for when no people are there even if its after their open time when you finally get through all the options. Good luck with it all!!

YoBob's avatar

Yep, your tax dollars at work.

Here’s an idea…. how about eliminating the IRS and going to an at the register tax that some states in the union have been using quite successfully for decades.

Judi's avatar

Actually this is what “less government” looks like.

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