How will the IRS actually hire 87,000 new agents with current labor shortages?

I worked at the IRS for 12 years before moving to the private sector. The 87,000 number is actually misleading - it includes ALL positions they plan to fill over a decade, including replacements for retiring employees. The IRS has been severely understaffed for years and about 50,000 employees are eligible for retirement soon. As for the pay issue, you're absolutely right that private sector pays better, but the IRS does offer stability, good benefits, and regular hours that appeal to many. They're also creating more remote work options to attract talent. They've recently been granted direct hiring authority for certain positions, which speeds up the typically lengthy federal hiring process. Regarding the quality of agents, there's definitely a training issue that needs addressing. Budget cuts over the last decade decimated their training programs, and institutional knowledge is walking out the door with retirees. The funding is supposed to help rebuild those training systems.

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I need to eat my words about the IRS callback service. After my skeptical comment, I was so desperate to fix a levy notice that I tried Claimyr anyway. I figured it couldn't make things worse. Within 25 minutes I was actually talking to someone at the IRS who could help. Spent 18 minutes explaining my situation and got the levy released that day. After spending literally 9+ hours over 3 days trying to reach someone on my own, this was mind-blowing. The IRS absolutely needs to hire more customer service staff. Until then, I'm never wasting another day on hold.

I've been a tax professional for over 20 years and honestly, the IRS staffing crisis has been brewing for a long time. Their average employee age is around 50, and they haven't been able to backfill positions lost through attrition. Congress cutting their budget by nearly 20% in real terms over the last decade made everything worse. The IRS is definitely lowering some requirements in certain areas. They've started hiring for some positions without the previously required accounting background. The main focus seems to be on processing centers and customer service rather than examination/audit personnel.

Does anyone know what software the IRS is using these days? I heard they were still running on systems from the 1960s for some of their core processes. Maybe instead of hiring 87,000 people they should spend some of that money upgrading their tech?

The technology issue is a huge part of the problem! I work in federal IT contracting and the IRS modernization efforts have been ongoing for decades with mixed results. They're actually allocating about $3.2 billion of the new funding specifically for IT upgrades, including replacing those ancient COBOL systems. The challenge is that you can't just flip a switch and modernize everything overnight when you're dealing with systems that process 240+ million tax returns annually. They have to maintain the old systems while building new ones, then carefully migrate data without losing anything or creating security vulnerabilities. But you're absolutely right that better technology could reduce the need for some of those 87,000 hires. Automated processing, better taxpayer self-service portals, and AI-assisted correspondence could handle a lot of the routine work that currently requires human intervention. The IRS has been piloting some chatbot technology and online account features that show promise.