All those turning to the Internal Revenue Service for help this tax season will not be able to gain access to the services, as the agency has announced that this year; it is looking to answer only about 71% of the total calls made to its toll-free helpline.

Even callers who do manage to get someone to answer their calls will have to face an average hold time of 12 minutes, as has been confirmed in a report released by the IRS ombudsman on Wednesday.

While stressing that the agency has been dealing with increasing number of calls with every passing season, IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said that IRS is "committed to providing the best possible service to every taxpayer. The bottom line is we have answered millions more phone calls in the last two years than ever before".

Not everyone is happy with the development though. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson said, "This level of service is unacceptable", while calling the lesser answering of calls the "number one most serious problem for taxpayers" for the season.

In its defense, the IRS has said that every since the Government started introducing new tax breaks to help the residents during the financial crisis, the number of calls that are being received are unusually high, and it needs to cut back in order to maintain the level of service.