As the federal government continues to grow, it provides less service at a higher cost.  During the 2009 income tax filing season 75.7 million people tried to call the IRS toll-free telephone lines.  Although the IRS answered 35.8 million (47.3%) calls, 22.4 million calls were not answered because taxpayers hung up, were disconnected by the IRS or received a busy signal.

Note the alarming negative trends in the chart below that summarizes IRS phone service over the last four years – declining service and longer wait times.

IRS Phone Statistics

IRS Phone Statistics

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