The IRS has announced plans to close nine Taxpayer Assistance Centers in six states. The sites that are targeted for closure are located in Altoona, Pa.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Elmira, N.Y.; West Nyack, N.Y.; Owensboro, Ky.; Paducah, Ky.; Walnut Creek, Calif.; and Wheeling, W.Va.
Unless changes are made, the closures will be effective November 30, 2025. All the locations but one are represented by Republicans in the House.
The West Nyack closure riled Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, asking that the office be allowed to remain open. “Closing this office without providing a suitable replacement will impose an undue burden on my constituents, many of whom rely on in-person services to resolve complex tax issues,” Lawler wrote.
Taxpayer Assistance Centers Today
The IRS has about 363 Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) located throughout the country. These TACs offer in-person help to taxpayers who cannot resolve their tax issues through other methods or prefer working directly with a representative in the office as opposed to over the phone. In fiscal year 2023, the IRS had 1.6 million face-to-face meetings with taxpayers at these centers.
The planned closures are part of overall efforts to cut costs. Earlier this year, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) sent a letter to the IRS advising that it would be terminating or not renewing more than 120 TAC offices. That worried taxpayers, tax professionals, and lawmakers alike, who called on the IRS to keep TAC offices during the 2025 tax filing season. The agency agreed. The National Taxpayer Advocate later referred to the agency’s success in offering 15,000 extended weekday hours at TACs as a “key achievement” during the filing season.
According to the Advocate, through April 26, 2025, the IRS provided 440,900 hours of in-person assistance at TACs. The IRS provided nearly 15,000 extended weekly office hours at 237 TACs around the country and served 25,695 taxpayers during these extended hours. The IRS also opened 95 TACs around the country for “Taxpayer Experience Days” on one Saturday per month (scheduled from February through June). Over 8,800 taxpayers received assistance at the Saturday events.
Taxpayer Assistance Centers Funding And Pilot Programs
Those expansions were made possible with Inflation Reduction Act funding. While Congress IRS initially earmarked $79.4 billion in supplemental funding to be spent over ten years as part of the IRA, that didn’t last long. Congress subsequently clawed back more than half of that funding ($41.8 billion), leaving the agency just $37.6 billion, which is expected to last through September 30, 2031. As of March 31, 2025, the IRS has spent approximately $13.8 billion of that money.
During the last filing season—with that IRA money—there were 546,000 scheduled appointments for face-to-face assistance at TACs. TACs also assisted over 75,000 taxpayers without appointments.
According to the Advocate, the IRS is piloting a program to assist taxpayers without appointments at select TAC locations. As part of this program, the taxpayer can seek virtual assistance from another participating TAC with service capacity. During the last fiscal year, 25 TAC locations provided this service with the support of assistors from remote TAC locations, depending on the availability of assistors. Between January 1 and April 15, 2025, there were 14 VSD partner sites, and through April 19, 2025, the VSD sites assisted 218 taxpayers.
Despite the additional funding, the Advocate pointed out that some TAC offices were already struggling—as of April 15, 2025, 239 were understaffed and 21 were unstaffed.
The agency has tried other efforts to assist taxpayers without adding personnel. Beginning in 2011, the IRS installed stand-alone booths—called kiosks—in TACs. The kiosks are connected to a laptop. The available services are the same as those that you’d normally see on the IRS website and are the kind that may not normally be easily available to taxpayers in rural and underserved communities since taxpayers in these communities may not have access to a computer, printer, or the internet at home. Additionally, having these kiosks at TACs mean that taxpayers may have some level of comfort knowing that face-to-face assistance is just a few steps away, as opposed to a phone call, which might go unanswered.
The kiosks would be a great idea—if they worked. Unfortunately, in April 2024, an audit found that, of the IRS had 100 kiosks located at 37 TACs, only 55 kiosks were operational. Of the remaining kiosks, 40 were inoperable, and the status of five was unknown (TIGTA did not receive a response from TAC managers in Washington, D.C. (3 kiosks) and Charlotte, North Carolina (2 kiosks)).
When the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) brought concerns to the agency, the IRS said it was discontinuing the kiosk program. According to TIGTA, “While we support the IRS’s decision to discontinue the current kiosk program, we believe that offering taxpayers a self-service option could be beneficial as the IRS reduces and restructures its workforce.”
(The IRS workforce dropped from 103,000 employees in January 2025 to approximately 77,000 in May 2025, a 25% reduction.)
The IRS has since agreed to reconsider, a sentiment that many hope will trickle over to other areas, as a second stab at closing TAC offices is underway.
National Treasury Employees Union Reaction
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) called the plan to shutter the TACs “a short-sighted decision that will make it harder for taxpayers to get help from IRS professionals in their community and degrade the agency’s vital customer service mission.”
The NTEU represents 150,000 employees at 33 federal agencies and departments, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Election Commission, National Park Service, Patent and Trademark Office, Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Treasury (including the IRS).
“Without these TACs, the people of these communities will have to drive longer distances, possibly 100 miles or more, in order to meet with the IRS and get their questions answered,” said Doreen Greenwald, NTEU national president..“Whatever savings the agency believes will come from canceled leases is overshadowed by the harm to taxpayers who are simply trying to do the right thing and comply with the ever-changing tax laws.”