Young Joins Colleagues to Urge IRS to Investigate EnQ’s Pay-for-Service Scheme

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.) today urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate recent reports suggesting a private company is charging taxpayers a premium to speak to an IRS representative or face potentially hours-long wait times.

A company called EnQ, has allegedly been flooding the IRS with robo-calls and selling slots at the front of the hold line to paying customers, taking advantage of an already strained customer service system. EnQ charges premiums as high as $1,000 per year.

“EnQ’s service creates a two-tiered system for taxpayers seeking to access assistance from the IRS. It also may exacerbate the poor response rates at the IRS it purports to address,” wrote the senators.

“Being able to call the IRS is a free, public service that should be available on an equal basis. Paying to receive preferential access to the IRS should not be permitted,” concluded the senators.

The IRS struggled to field incoming calls from taxpayers before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic has worsened this issue.

Read the full letter here.