[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/","headline":"How to Speak to Someone at the IRS","name":"How to Speak to Someone at the IRS","description":"Getting ahold of someone at the IRS over the phone is notoriously difficult, but...","datePublished":"2021-10-15","dateModified":"2022-08-03","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/author\/logan-allec\/#Person","name":"Logan Allec, CPA","url":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/author\/logan-allec\/","identifier":4,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6e74dd0453a5871d1dcfde6d40d9494765ca8bfdb01927cefee4564d4bee9075?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6e74dd0453a5871d1dcfde6d40d9494765ca8bfdb01927cefee4564d4bee9075?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Money Done Right","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Money-Done-Right-Personal-Finance-and-Investing-Blog.png","url":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Money-Done-Right-Personal-Finance-and-Investing-Blog.png","width":488,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/How-to-Speak-to-Someone-at-the-IRS.jpg","url":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/How-to-Speak-to-Someone-at-the-IRS.jpg","height":460,"width":1900},"url":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ","name":"Tax Relief Explained: What To Do If You Can't Pay Your Taxes","description":"Do you owe at least $10,000 in back taxes, or have multiple years of unfiled tax returns? Book your FREE consultation with Choice Tax Relief by calling 866-8000-TAX or booking here:\nhttps:\/\/choicetaxrelief.com\/free-tax-relief-consultation\/?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=tax-relief-consult&utm_content=62TcXIEtKnQ\n\nMy team can help you understand your tax situation and possible next steps. Free. No obligation. No judgment.\n\nTax relief is a general term used to describe various programs that taxpayers and their representatives \u2014 such as enrolled agents, CPAs, and tax attorneys \u2014 utilize to minimize or even eliminate the taxes, penalties, and interest a taxpayer owes to the IRS and other tax agencies.\n\nThese tax relief programs range from a simple phone call to the government for first-time penalty abatement to a full-fledged offer in compromise.\n\nIn this video, Logan Allec CPA answers the question, \"What Is Tax Relief?\" and goes over the three major IRS tax relief programs we use everyday for our clients.\n\nVideos Mentioned In This Video:\n\u27a1\ufe0f Offer In Compromise Basics: https:\/\/youtu.be\/tR3uaqJE86o\n\u27a1\ufe0f Offer In Compromise Formula: https:\/\/youtu.be\/1jDj6yHnjMI\n\u27a1\ufe0f Filing Back Taxes: https:\/\/youtu.be\/l4nj4ceBz_o\n\nTable of Contents:\n0:00 What Is Tax Relief?\n2:12 Tax Relief Program Commonalities\n3:10 The Three Major Tax Relief Strategies\n7:03 An Offer in Compromise May Not Be the Best Option\n8:10 Shady Tax Relief Companies\n9:00 Tax Relief Program #1: Offer in Compromise (OIC)\n11:12 State Offer in Compromise Programs\n14:05 Tax Relief Program #2: Currently Not Collectible (CNC) Status\n20:36 Tax Relief Program #3: Partial-Pay Installment Agreement (PPIA)","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/62TcXIEtKnQ\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/62TcXIEtKnQ\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/62TcXIEtKnQ\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/62TcXIEtKnQ\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/62TcXIEtKnQ\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2022-04-21T16:50:38+00:00","duration":"PT27M26S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/62TcXIEtKnQ","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCQ9WUXlSuLlbi5BLkgtEUEA#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCQ9WUXlSuLlbi5BLkgtEUEA","name":"Logan Allec","description":"Logan Allec is a CPA and the founder of Choice Tax Relief, which specializes in helping people with their IRS and state tax debt.","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/43_VKqrbO06RGMcxfdQbDXosrkVRq1yf5QgSQEiR4ILUGWV9fJtTh0o2ftYMYqVo6PwnEOPRdg=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":22018}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=62TcXIEtKnQ#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":485}]},"commentCount":"76","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment1","dateCreated":"2026-01-05 11:53:46","description":"the irs sucks.. In all avenues","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"alan","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment2","dateCreated":"2025-12-18 17:13:26","description":"November 18,2025.   \r\nThank you for these back door directions which worked fine for me two years ago.\r\nHowever, things have changed and the system seems to be voice activated now.  After I said \u201cEnglish\u201d I said \u201cAnswers about your personal income taxes\u201d and that connected me to a wait line.  The wait was 45 minutes without a call back option but eventually I was able to talk to a real person.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"David","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment3","dateCreated":"2025-11-17 07:31:29","description":"This doesn\u2019t work anymore they want you to input your Social Security number. They will not transfer you anywhere else and if you don\u2019t put your Social Security number and it says call back when you have that information and hangs up on you. So this doesn\u2019t work anymore we gotta find a new way to contact somebody live.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffery","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment4","dateCreated":"2025-05-28 09:37:33","description":"I don't understand why we can't talk to a LIVE PERSON! I hate the automated recordings. I filed in late Feb, am due a refund, and STILL haven't received it! \r\nFrustrated!","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Pam","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment5","dateCreated":"2025-05-10 10:37:18","description":"This no longer works. After not giving SSN it says cant help you call back with your SSN.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"George Bush","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment6","dateCreated":"2025-05-09 10:25:25","description":"I needed to get in touch with the IRS for a reference number for my bank because they say they did not receive my direct deposit refund. It is virtually impossible to speak to a representative at the IRS. It is impossible to get reference numbers my refund is out there floating around in the cloud somewhere and I cannot get a reference number from the IRS because their phone system just keeps looping me around and telling me that my refund was already sent. It is impossible to get in touch with a person so I have lost out on my refund.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"G Butler","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment7","dateCreated":"2025-04-16 15:13:13","description":"Tried this way for the 2024 year. It\u2019s now 4\/16\/2025. I\u2019m still waiting for my return after verifying it was me because of a notice. That\u2019s on top of me already having to give them a pin because tax fraud many years ago. I\u2019m in financial crisis now and can\u2019t get through to an agent.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ross","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment8","dateCreated":"2025-03-14 13:31:45","description":"i have spent the entire day trying to get a live person on the line. These instructions do not work. If you do not enter your social security number the system hangs up on you. What a fricken joke. Taxes from 2023 are still not back and here we are nearly a quarter of the way through 2025. IRS you people suck.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"randee hebert","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment9","dateCreated":"2025-02-05 10:25:38","description":"The IRS has changed its menu, and these instructions no longer work. It's all automated. I received a notice that a refund check for 2020 was not cashed, and I need to call the IRS to have it replaced.  I have spent six hours trying to reach someone live.  It's an impossible nightmare!","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Carolann","url":""}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#Comment10","dateCreated":"2025-01-06 17:08:28","description":"Here is the list of   Your Rights as a taxpayer   (IRS  Publication 1) \r\n\r\nThe Right to be informed: \r\n\r\nWell the IRS no longer \"INFORMS\" a taxpayer as to whether a reasonable Installment payment plan (form 9465) has been accepted or not.  No, really, they do actually nothing.  Their systems are either programmed by idiots or sadistic bastards. Take your pick!\r\n\r\nThe Right to Quality Service\r\n\r\nDon't make me laugh! Failure all around. No info, no ability to take a call, no ability to answer a written certified registered with return receipt letter, asking a question they SHOULD ACTUALLY KNOW.     \r\nIn addition, it is no quality service, if the a tax preparer with a  PTIN, and EFIN, with years of experience is \"NOT ALLOWED\" to call or inquire by mail about a return they have prepared.  Specifically, refusing to communicate with the person, who most likely has the most information and understanding about any given tax return, is one of the most shiddy and counterproductive behavior of the IRS, and I include the people in congress, senate and White House as the dumbest, meanest, most ignorant people to legislate this shitstorm   \r\n\r\nThe Right to Pay No more than the Correct Amount of Tax, including the right to have the IRS apply all tax payments properly: \r\n\r\nFailure all around!  While we can argue a lot about the \"Correct Amount of tax\", the idea that IRS apply payments properly is being violated by the IRS often, and most often in the case of form 9465 \"already previously accepted\" automated Installment tax payment plans.  So, for example, the IRS has no reasonable system to re-instate an installment plan that has been \"defaulted\" on, because a check or automated payment bounced, or the electronics behind the scenes had a hickup. \r\n\r\nWeird and mean on the part of the IRS.  Including: False, stupid, counterproductive on the part of IRS.  Yes, right, exactly:  The IRS is too dumb to send an automated letter to a taxpayer, stating that \"Your last automated or expected payment bounced, and please send us a payment to cure that default within 30, 60, 90 days.\"  Easy, peasy, but they don't want to follow the TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS!     \r\n\r\nWhen I say too dumb, it also includes \"too vicious, ignorant, sadistic, careless\". I could manage this system better all by myself.  Compare this to the systems used by \"Student Loans\" and \"any and all reasonable bank and credit card companies\".  \r\nThe reality of life is this:  \r\nLife is chaotic, and therefore any method to make life less chaotic is to be preferred to\r\nsmall-minded viciousness.  Viciousness is for crocs and gators, who are incapable to know any better.  From humans endowed with reason understanding and mercy, we have the right to expect better.   Indeed, we should have a right to expect that those who administer complex tax systems, actually KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEMS they are causing.  They do not know. \r\n\r\nSkipping items 4 through 8 of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, the #9 Right to Retain Representation is certainly not a given.  The super-rich have representation, the regular\r\ntaxpayer gets the shaft, over and over again. I am not a leftist or right-wing anti-tax,crazy \r\nweirdo fanatic.  No, taxes should be as simple and understandable as possible, and they are purposely made as vaguely foggy iffy mysterious, by lawyers, politicians and moneybags.  Caligula is in charge of the current tax system, and decent people from Marcus Aurelius to Jimmy Carter are all shaking their heads about the corruption & nastiness, all rotating so continually in their graves that they almost could become a free power source of electricity, if that were a mere engineering problem.\r\n \r\nBut decency, reason, kindness, understanding is not an engineering problem, but a philosophical problem of doing that which is most right, most advantageous to the greatest number of people. If religion and politics were a way to engineer the mind to increase decency, reason, kindness, understanding among people, then, looking back at the last 10,000 years, it should have born some fruit by now. I am still waiting.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Billibob Fazoosa","url":""}}],"about":["Personal Taxes"],"wordCount":565,"keywords":["schema"],"articleBody":"Getting ahold of someone at the IRS over the phone is notoriously difficult, but it can be done if you select the correct options \u2014 and are willing to wait a bit.Step-by-step instructions on which menu options to select are below, but keep in mind that if the IRS phone lines are particularly understaffed that day, you may be facing a long wait time to reach someone at the IRS, even if you correctly follow the steps below.Although the IRS phone lines are open between 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM in your local time (with Alaska and Hawaii following Pacific Time), the IRS says that the best time to call is before 10:00 AM.In my experience, the earlier you call, the better.Also, Mondays (followed by Tuesdays) tend to be the busiest days for IRS phone lines, so call later in the week if possible.Can’t pay your taxes?\u00a0 Watch this YouTube video.Table of ContentsToggleHow to Speak to Someone at the IRS (Step-by-Step)What Is the IRS Phone Wait Time?Information You Need When Calling the IRSWhat the IRS Will Not Discuss With You Over the PhoneHow to Speak to Someone at the IRS (Step-by-Step)Here’s exactly how to speak to someone at the IRS over the phone:1. Call 1-800-829-1040 between the hours of 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM local time.2. Press “1” for English or “2” for Spanish.3. Press “2” for “answers about your personal income taxes.”4. Press “1” for “questions about a form you have already submitted or a payment or to order a tax transcript.”5. Press “3” for “all other questions about your tax history or payment.”6. Press “2” for “all other questions about your tax history or payment.”7. Do\u00a0not input your Social Security Number when the recording tells you to.8. Press “2” for “personal- or individual-tax related question.”9. Press “4” for “all other inquiries.”10. Wait to be connected to someone at the IRS.What Is the IRS Phone Wait Time?According to the IRS, the IRS phone wait time varies based on what month it is.\u00a0 See the table below for average wait times by time of year..simple_table-44556 table tr th{\ttext-align: center;\t\t}.simple_table-44556 table tr td{\ttext-align: center;\t\t}IRS Call Wait TimesTime of YearAverage Wait TimeBusiest DaysFiling Season(January - April)15 MinutesMondaysTuesdaysPresidents Day WeekendAround April 15Post-Filing Season(May - December)27 MinutesMondaysTuesdaysInformation You Need When Calling the IRSWhen you call the IRS, make sure you have this information handy:Your Social Security number and birth dateYour filing statusYour previous year’s tax returnAny correspondences (letters, notices, etc.) from the IRS pertaining to your questionIf you are calling for somebody else, you will need their information as well as a valid Form 8821 or Form 2848.If you are calling for a deceased taxpayer, you will need their death certificate and either a court approval letter or IRS Form 56 to speak to the IRS on behalf of the decedent.What the IRS Will Not Discuss With You Over the PhoneAccording to the IRS, IRS telephone operators cannot assist with every question.\u00a0 Here is a partial list of topics that you will not be able to get help with from an IRS operator over the phone:1031 Exchanges529 Plans for Primary School Education754 ElectionBasis CalculationChange in Accounting MethodCorporate Consolidations, Mergers, or ReorganizationsCryptocurrencyDay TradingDepreciationEntity Classification ElectionExcess Business LossesHealth Savings AccountsNet Operating LossesOpportunity ZonesQualified Business Income DeductionSale of BusinessStock OptionsTrusts"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Taxes","item":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Personal Taxes","item":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/\/personal-taxes\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How to Speak to Someone at the IRS","item":"https:\/\/moneydoneright.com\/taxes\/personal-taxes\/how-to-speak-to-someone-at-the-irs\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]