Change to IRS Help Line for 2014 Filing Season

The IRS Help Line will be changing how they respond to tax law related questions beginning with the 2014 filing season. These changes are being made in an effort to persuade taxpayers to use the IRS website and other resources to get answers to their tax law related questions. Additionally, the changes would allow the IRS to save money and for the IRS Help Line to be utilized more effectively.

The changes will be as follows:

• January 1 - April 15
  
  IRS will answer basic tax law questions when a taxpayer calls the IRS Help Line. Basic tax law questions are defined as questions pertaining to Forms 1040A, 1040EZ, and related area on Form 1040 such as filing status, dependents, exemptions and taxable income.
  More complex tax law questions will not be answered. Instead, the IRS help line will be referring taxpayers to other resources available on IRS.gov such as the Interactive Taxpayer Assistance, Tax Trails, IRS tax publications, and other resources such as the tax software product they are using to get answers to these questions.
• April 16 - December 31 
  
  Any tax law related questions (both basic and complex) asked by taxpayers will be referred to other resources available on IRS.gov, IRS tax publications, and other resources such as the tax software product they are using.

See Some IRS Assistance and Taxpayer Service Shift to Automated Resources on the IRS website for more details on this change and other changes the IRS is making to their website.