During the 2023 tax filing season, the IRS said on Thursday that it had hired an additional 4,000 customer service representatives who are being trained to answer questions from taxpayers. It is a component of the new hiring that was made possible by the $80 billion boost that congressional Democrats provided to the IRS as part of the landmark climate and health care law that was passed this summer. Its purpose is to assist in the organization’s reconstruction after decades without additional funding.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is still figuring out how to spend the additional $80 billion, but it has made it clear that resources will be used to improve customer service and examine high-income earners. Technical account management and taxpayer rights are being taught to the newest hires. During the past tax season, the IRS only responded to 9% of taxpayer phone calls, prompting a group of lawmakers from both parties to write to the agency to express their displeasure. Officials from the IRS and Treasury have stated that they want to eradicate bad customer service.

In a statement released on Thursday, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig stated that although “help is on the way for taxpayers,” “we have been unable to provide the help that IRS employees want to give and that the nation’s taxpayers deserve.” Rettig stated that “as the newly hired employees are trained and move online in 2023, we will have more assistors on the phone than ever before.”

Prior to the midterm elections, GOP candidates all over the country have stated that they want to eliminate the IRS’s new funding, arguing that Democratic legislation will fund an army of auditors who will harass middle-class taxpayers rather than assist them. In general, those assertions are alarmist and erroneous. By the end of the year, the IRS’s management wants to hire another 1,000 customer service representatives, bringing the total number of new hires in this field to 5,000.