- Home
- Agencies
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- General Services Administration
- Department of Commerce
- Department of the Interior
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Department of Defense
- Department of Justice
- National Science Foundation
- Department of Education
- Department of Labor
- Office of Personnel Management
- Department of Energy
- Department of State
- Small Business Administration
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Department of Transportation
- Social Security Administration
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of the Treasury
- U.S. Agency for International Development
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Goals
- Initiatives
- Programs
Primary tabs
Key to Changes
This text is Revised text
This word has been added to the text
This text is Last Published text
This word has been removed from the text
Modifed styling with no visual changes
Strategic Objective
Create a culture of service through relentless pursuit of customer value
Strategic Objective
Overview
Treasury is a service organization; we provide services and products to the American people, businesses, federal agencies, partners within Treasury, and other entities, both foreign and domestic. Each of these groups has unique needs, values, and measures of success. Improving customer service at Treasury means creating a culture among our leadership and employees where everyone understands each unique customer and defines their success as customer success. This effort involves every part of Treasury and reaches beyond the Management Offices into each bureau and policy office.
Taxpayers expect to interact with the Department of the Treasury in a manner that is fair and straightforward. To meet this expectation, we aspire to provide the best service in the federal government.
Read Less...Progress Update
Few government agencies have greater interaction with the American people than the IRS, and providing top quality service to taxpayers, including helping them understand and meet their tax obligations, remains a central focus for the IRS. That is why Treasury’s second FY 2014-2015 APG focused on increasing self-service options for taxpayers, who increasingly expect on-demand web-based interactions. In FY 2015, the IRS continued to invest in and prioritize online services to meet taxpayer demand for anytime, anywhere, any-device access, delivering innovative digital interactions and enhanced support and communication with the tax community and government partners.
Online service options cost comparatively less and have a greater capacity to assist larger numbers of taxpayers than other service channels. At the same time, the IRS recognizes that telephone contact remains a critical and preferred mechanism for many taxpayers and, consequently, committed as many resources as possible in FY 2015 to maintaining telephone service at acceptable levels. As referenced earlier in this report, between FY 2010 and FY 2015, Congress cut the IRS budget by more than $1.2 billion, which represents a cut of nearly 10 percent in nominal dollars and more than 17 percent with inflation. This impacted the IRS’s ability to serve taxpayers, contributing to the level of service falling to 38.1 percent in FY 2015. The IRS also experienced increased call volume in FY 2015 and issued 17.6 million disconnects, which are automatic call terminations by the IRS after a fixed waiting period. These “courtesy” disconnects are designed to limit excessive wait time and direct callers to alternative service channels.
Increasing the use of online services, however, results in additional challenges. In May 2015, the IRS determined that unauthorized third parties used taxpayers’ personal information obtained from sources outside of the IRS to access its “Get Transcript” application by using stolen information to clear the application’s multi-step user authentication process. The required prior personal knowledge about the taxpayer included social security number, date of birth, filing status, street address, and answers to several identity verification questions typically known only to the taxpayer. The IRS believes some of this information may be used to file fraudulent tax returns during the upcoming 2016 filing season. Immediately after this incident, the IRS suspended the “Get Transcript” application and contacted impacted taxpayers, directing them to identity theft protection tools available through the IRS and credit-monitoring services made available at the IRS’s expense. The IRS also flagged impacted accounts in its core processing system to protect taxpayers moving forward. Securing systems and protecting taxpayers’ personal information continues to be a top priority for Treasury.
Despite the threat of identity theft, taxpayers’ demand for self-service and electronic service options continues to increase. The IRS plans to create a more secure online environment by focusing on developing and maintaining strong authentication and identity management capabilities. In addition, the IRS provides year-round assistance through outreach and education programs, tax forms and publications, and toll-free call centers, taxpayer assistance centers, volunteer income tax assistance sites, and tax counseling for the elderly sites.
