From Rod Powers,
Your Guide to US Military.
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Feb 1 2004

Evaluating the quality of IRS telephone services. To ensure that IRS representatives give accurate, courteous, and professional answers, they use several methods to evaluate the quality of their telephone services. One method is for a second IRS representative to sometimes listen in on or record telephone calls. Another is to ask some callers to complete a short survey at the end of the call.

Walk-in. Many products and services are available on a walk-in basis.

• Products. You can walk in to many post offices, libraries, and IRS offices to pick up certain forms, instructions, and publications. Some IRS offices, libraries, grocery stores, copy centers, city and county government offices, credit unions, and office supply stores have a collection of products available to print from a CD-ROM or photocopy from reproducible proofs. Also, some IRS offices and libraries have the Internal Revenue Code, regulations, Internal Revenue Bulletins, and Cumulative Bulletins available for research purposes.
• Services. You can walk in to your local Taxpayer Assistance Center every business day to ask tax questions or get help with a tax problem. An employee can explain IRS letters, request adjustments to your account, or help you set up a payment plan. You can set up an appointment by calling your local Center and, at the prompt, leaving a message requesting Everyday Tax Solutions help. A representative will call you back within 2 business days to schedule an in-person appointment at your convenience. To find the number, go to www.irs.gov or look in the phone book under “United States Govern­ment, Internal Revenue Service.”

Mail. You can send your order for forms, instructions, and publications to the Distribution Center nearest to you and receive a response within 10 workdays after your request is received. Use the address that applies to your part of the country.

• Western part of U.S.: Western Area Distribution Center Rancho Cordova, CA 95743–0001
• Central part of U.S.: Central Area Distribution Center P.O. Box 8903 Bloomington, IL 61702–8903
• Eastern part of U.S. and foreign addresses: Eastern Area Distribution Center P.O. Box 85074 Richmond, VA 23261–5074

CD-ROM for tax products. You can order IRS Publication 1796, Federal Tax Products on CD-ROM, and obtain:

• Current-year forms, instructions, and publications.
• Prior-year forms and instructions.
• Frequently requested tax forms that may be filled in electronically, printed out for submission, and saved for recordkeeping.
• Internal Revenue Bulletins.

Buy the CD-ROM from National Technical Information Service (NTIS) on the Internet at www.irs.gov/cdorders for $22 (no handling fee) or call 1-877-233-6767 toll free to buy the CD-ROM for $22 (plus a $5 handling fee). The first release is available in early January and the final release is available in late February.

CD-ROM for small businesses. IRS Publication 3207, Small Business Resource Guide, is a must for every small business owner or any taxpayer about to start a business. This handy, interactive CD con­tains all the business tax forms, instructions and publica­tions needed to successfully manage a business. In addition, the CD provides an abundance of other helpful information, such as how to prepare a business plan, finding financing for your business, and much more. The design of the CD makes finding information easy and quick and incorporates file formats and browsers that can be run on virtually any desktop or laptop computer.

It is available in early April. You can get a free copy by calling 1-800-829-3676 or by visiting the web site at www.irs.gov/smallbiz.

Above Information Courtesy of Internal Revenue Service (IRS).