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IRS to close St. Petersburg tax help center
The city's walk-in assistance office is among 68 centers closing nationwide in a cost-cutting move.
By HELEN HUNTLEY
Published May 28, 2005
The Internal Revenue Service is closing walk-in taxpayer help centers in St. Petersburg and 67 other cities as part of a national cost-cutting effort.
The St. Petersburg center at 9450 Koger Blvd. will close this fall, sending taxpayers seeking in-person encounters with the IRS on a trip across Tampa Bay. The IRS office at 3848 W. Columbus Drive, Tampa, will have the only walk-in center in the Tampa Bay area.
Traffic at walk-in centers has been declining as more taxpayers turn to the IRS Web site (www.irs.gov) for tax forms and information. Contacts at the centers nationwide fell 19 percent over the past two fiscal years, to 7.7-million last year, while visits to the Web site doubled, to 153-million, the IRS said.
The agency said it costs much less to provide forms over the Internet and answers to tax questions by telephone than to offer those services at walk-in centers. During tax season, elderly and low-income taxpayers who need help preparing a return can get it from volunteers with the AARP and VITA programs at temporary sites set up libraries, churches and community centers.
"Like most other federal agencies, we're being asked to create efficiencies and be responsible with taxpayers' dollars," IRS commissioner Mark Everson said. "Using objective criteria, we're creating these efficiencies where they'll have the least impact on good service."
The IRS will continue to have an office in St. Petersburg employing about 100 people who work with businesses or in criminal investigations; only the taxpayer help center will close.
The closings eliminate 434 jobs nationwide, including 10 in St. Petersburg. Everson said the IRS is asking for authority to offer early retirement and buyouts to those who are qualified. He said employees losing their jobs will have priority for other IRS openings, including positions being created in enforcement.
Centers are being shut down in 29 states. Other Florida centers slated for closing are in Fort Myers and Plantation.
Helen Huntley can be reached at huntley@sptimes.com or 727 893-8230.
[Last modified May 28, 2005, 00:08:13]
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