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Washington, D.C.—Unless the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is provided with additional resources, further necessary reductions in customer service activities will add serious risk to the nation’s voluntary tax-compliance system, the leader of the union representing IRS employees told a House subcommittee today.

“The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) believes the system of voluntary tax compliance is most effective when the IRS is able to provide excellent service for those trying to meet their obligations under the law,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said.

In testimony submitted to the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, the NTEU leader reiterated a number of indicators of serious problems in the agency’s ability to provide adequate customer service.

These include millions of taxpayers unable to get through on the telephone; taxpayers enduring lengthy waits on hold; severely understaffed Taxpayer Assistance Centers; an inability to get answers to tax law questions, thus sharply raising the likelihood of tax returns with errors, forcing costly post-filing efforts by the agency and taxpayers alike; and more.

Of particular concern, Kelley told the committee, is the IRS announcement that it will no longer prepare tax returns; 10 years ago, she said, the IRS prepared some 476,000 returns, many of them for low-income, elderly and disabled taxpayers.

“With taxpayers unable to receive the assistance they need to resolve their tax questions and accurately prepare their returns,” she said, “many may be forced to turn to paid preparers for help, resulting in additional expenses for them to simply comply with their tax obligation.”

She added: “NTEU strongly believes that limiting the amount of live assistance to taxpayers who are seeking help with their tax-related issues will only serve to harm those taxpayers who rely on the assistance of qualified and experienced IRS employees to understand and meet their tax obligations.”

President Kelley emphasized that the IRS budget has been cut by nearly $1 billion since fiscal 2011. Moreover, she said, the funding cuts—including those forced by sequestration—have resulted in the loss of some 8,000 full-time, permanent employees, many of whom were responsible for providing critical customer service assistance.

The impact is not limited to helping taxpayers navigate the increasingly-complex tax code either, Kelley said. It extends to the need to provide timely assistance to victims of identity theft.

The IRS has said that between 2011 and 2012, new cases of identity theft skyrocketed from nearly 250,000 to some 816,000. By the end of fiscal 2013, the IRS had more than 3,000 employees dedicated to working identity theft cases.

“While the IRS is doing what it can to prevent identity theft, resolve cases in a timely manner and provide its victims with the assistance they need, its ability to do so will diminish unless additional resources are provided,” she said.

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.