How to reach a live human at the IRS - the old way isn't working
February 4, 2025 10:08 AM   Subscribe

I am calling the correct number: 1-800-829-1040 but I can't find any menu options that will send me to a live person. In fact, at one point the automated system told me that they *can't* transfer me to a live person. Has the current administration fucked this up too?
posted by tzikeh to Grab Bag (7 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
I saw this posted to reddit last week. I have not road tested this.
To navigate through the phone tree to a person (as of last year) 8008291040,,2,1,3,2,-,2,4
, = pause
- = wait If you save as a new contact exactly as it is written you shouldn’t have to press any buttons until the last ,2,4. I think. Tinkering with the pause times may be necessary.
If you just call and follow the menu prompts instead of programming it as a contact you don't need to worry about the coding for waits and pauses.
posted by phunniemee at 10:16 AM on February 4 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: The menu doesn't correlate to that anymore.
posted by tzikeh at 10:20 AM on February 4


Call the Taxpayer Advocate Service at 1-877-777-4778.
posted by notjustthefish at 10:48 AM on February 4 [2 favorites]


Best answer: So I did this last week. I followed the “getahuman” IRS path except at the end had to basically confuse the chat bot and keep asking for an operator to get a live person. I think I basically kept saying “no I need to talk to a person” every time she said “do you mean x…”
posted by bitdamaged at 11:41 AM on February 4 [13 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you bitdamaged - that worked!
posted by tzikeh at 12:23 PM on February 4 [4 favorites]


My standard method of getting through to a human via any voice-recognition menu tree is just to keep saying "cabbages" until the bot gives up. Doesn't usually take long.
posted by flabdablet at 8:39 AM on February 5 [1 favorite]


I'm not sure if you still need answers at all, but one tip for the future: When I had IRS issues the best thing that ever happened was contacting my local IRS office. Ended up meeting up with someone in person who was super helpful.
posted by mmoncur at 5:09 AM on February 8


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