The Internal Revenue Service would increase tax compliance and bring in more government revenue if the agency improved the customer service experience it provides to Americans by telephone and in person, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The congressional watchdog found research that links lower levels of tax compliance to dissatisfaction with IRS services and difficulty obtaining assistance. 

GAO suggested that making it easier for taxpayers to get answers to their tax questions would benefit them and the federal government.

“Improving taxpayer service could yield financial and other types of measurable benefits,” GAO said in its new report released on Tuesday. 

Improved customer service could potentially lead to “higher voluntary compliance and related tax revenues,” the watchdog said.

The IRS provides assistance through its official website, telephone operations and in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

GAO found that the agency has not established a comprehensive system to measure how effectively those services encourage compliance or generate additional revenue.

One study cited in the report that was reviewed by GAO found that taxpayers who were less compliant with federal tax laws were also more likely to express dissatisfaction with the IRS.

“A lack of satisfaction with services may contribute to noncompliance,” the report said.

Taxpayers in the low-compliance category were more likely to say the IRS did not offer the services they needed and that accessing assistance was difficult. 

Respondents in that category also said they were dissatisfied with the quality of the agency's services.

A separate study examining taxpayer satisfaction found that taxable people in the United States were less satisfied with telephone assistance when compared with the IRS website or in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

The research in the report did not fully establish that dissatisfaction with telephone assistance directly resulted in tax noncompliance, but the findings highlight the importance of making it easier for taxpayers to obtain reliable answers to their questions about tax compliance, especially heading into tax season.

GAO also reviewed research that examined whether receiving assistance has improved the accuracy of tax returns. One study found that taxpayers who received such services had higher accuracy on selected sections of their returns compared to those who did not receive assistance.

Evidence from other countries offered additional support for improving taxpayer services. GAO identified 12 studies involving foreign tax administrations that found a positive relationship between taxpayer services and at least one benefit.

In Germany, one study concluded that a positive assessment of tax administration service orientation was associated with an average reduction of about 30% in business taxpayers' compliance costs. A separate study in Belgium found that a customer-unfriendly tax administration increased the average compliance burden by about 27%.

GAO emphasized that taxpayer services and enforcement programs are both crucial for ensuring tax compliance.

“IRS and other tax system stakeholders recognize that taxpayer services, along with enforcement programs, are critical to ensuring voluntary tax compliance,” the GAO report said.

The IRS budgeted roughly $3 billion for taxpayer services in fiscal 2026, compared with roughly $5 billion for enforcement activities. The agency's customer service representatives answered 6.9 million telephone calls as of April 2026, the report noted.

Despite the potential benefits, GAO found that the IRS still lacks a comprehensive approach to measuring the effects of its customer service investments.

"By considering the costs and benefits of services intended to achieve desired results, federal decision-makers may allocate resources so that federal spending achieves the greatest potential overall benefits," read the report.

GAO said measuring the results of taxpayer services could help the government make better decisions about how to allocate resources.

"Based on our review of the available documents and discussions with IRS officials, the research effort is designed to create a dataset that will allow IRS to determine and compare its administrative costs associated with voluntarily filed individual income tax returns to their related tax payments," read the report.

"These costs are to include those for interacting with taxpayers to provide services, along with other costs such as for processing or reviewing tax return information. Without better information, the report warned, the IRS risks failing to optimally balance its resources and the benefits achieved through its investments."

The agency started to research the administrative costs associated with voluntarily filed tax returns, then comparing them to the tax payments received. The program is in its early stages as of August 2026, and IRS officials had not established a timeline for completing the research.

According to IRS officials, the effort is in an early stage and may take some time to finish due to various reasons, such as data challenges and loss of IRS staff," read the report.

"IRS officials also noted that staffing may be a challenge because a limited number of individuals have the skill set needed for such complex research. IRS officials said they have not determined the timeline for completing the research and using the results to make service investment decisions," the report also said.