The Internal Revenue Service plans to open a call center collections office in central Iowa in April of 2010. I.R.S. spokesman Bill Banowsky says the agency will hire about one-hundred people to start early next spring with another hundred positions to fill through the rest of the calendar year.
Banowsky says, “This is an automated collections system site, which means our customer service reps or collection representatives will be providing assistance to individual and small business taxpayers, helping them resolve their tax delinquencies, whether it’s maybe an unfiled return or they have unpaid account that they need to resolve.” He says the office will be located in the Des Moines area and a job fair to fill the first of the 200 positions will be held in the capitol city on October 5th.
“They don’t need any prior IRS experience or tax law experience,” Banowsky says. “We have a pretty extensive training program. Basically, they have to be U.S. citizens, they either have to have four years of college or one year of job experience and they have to pass a telephone skills assessment, which we will be conducting in December and January.”
There are already 14 similar I.R.S. call centers scattered across the country. Banowsky explains why Iowa was chosen for this latest new facility. “First of all, there’s a history of customer service-type of operations here in the state, so we think there’s a ready workforce with a reputation for a strong work ethic,” Banowsky says. “You’re centrally located which is going to help us in providing coverage for taxpayers from coast-to-coast.”
The job fair on October 5th will be held at the Des Moines Botanical Center from 10 AM to 3 P.M. Hiring is expected to begin in February. Pay is to range from about $31,000 for entry-level to more than $56,000 for managers. For information, visit the website: “www.jobs.irs.gov/ia.html“. After October 5th, jobs will be posted at: “www.jobs.irs.gov/USAJOBS“.