The most common way to call IRS is via its helpline for individuals available. You can do it via 1-800-829-1040 phone number.

IRS is a very busy government organization. Calls to it could sometimes take several hours. And if you didn’t prepare some important information you may have to call again after all the wait.

So before proceeding with the call make sure that you have all the information required for your question with you. Besides that, you will need your SSN (social security number) ready for a personal return and EIN for a business return. Our advice is to have your tax return ready in front of you for the year you’re inquiring about. Your last tax return will help too since they may ask some verification questions based on it. For example, there could be quite a lot of verification questions if you’re calling IRS about a change of address.

Now when you have all the documents ready, make sure to allocate enough time for a call. I never had it done faster than an hour and sometimes it took several hours. If you are calling via mobile phone make sure it has enough charge. It would be quite disappointing if it will die right when you are about to get your issue resolved. Having a charger handy won’t hurt too.

Check that you will be calling right number. Depending on your question number could be different. Also if you are calling about specific IRS form make sure to look for a number on the form that you received. Typically IRS will have it there. Calling a wrong number may waste a lot of time since you won’t figure it out until speaking to a live person, and IRS agent may not be able to switch you to a right department.

Below are some phone numbers depending on the department and form you’re calling about:

IRS Tax Help Line for Individuals	1-800-829-1040
Business and Specialty Tax Line	1-800-829-4933
Refund Hotline	1-800-829-1954
Forms and Publications	1-800-829-3676
Underreporter Cases for Small Business/Self Employed (SBSE) Taxpayer (CP2000 form will have this number)	1-800-829-8310
Underreporter Cases for Wage & Investment (W&I) Taxpayer	1-800-829-3009

Since IRS phone system is changing very frequently we won’t provide you with any shortcuts since most probably they will be wrong. But we have a good advice to shorten your time with all the choices. Take a pen and paper and write down selections that you make during the call. There are typically many of them and knowing right selection will help you to get through without listening to the entire prompt.

IRS Fax Number

• For international tax account issues you need to dial 1-681-247-3101.
• For International Taxpayer Advocate you need to dial 1-855-818-5697.

Now you should be ready to make a call to IRS. Good Luck!