Once the office is closed on May 15, the nearest such place to receive such services is the IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center at the J.W. Peck Federal Building, 550 Main St., Cincinnati, or the IRS office at the Dayton Federal Building, 200 W. 2nd St., Dayton. The two offices are 20 and 37 miles from the agency’s West Chester office, respectively.
The closure is a strategic business decision that’s part of a ongoing nationwide cost-cutting measures designed to allow the IRS to release more expensive leased space in favor of underutilized vacant space, officials said.
“It’s just a continuing effort to try and minimize cost and get the most effective use out of the money that we have in our budget,” said Jennifer Jenkins, IRS spokeswoman for Ohio. “We have a responsibility to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money.”
The closure will see 23 IRS employees from the West Chester office relocated to the Cincinnati office, she said.
The IRS is making an increasing amount of services available online at IRS.gov, so that people do not need to make a trip to their local IRS office, Jenkins said.
“In this case, it’s fortunate people do still have in southwest Ohio a couple of options available to them for in-person tax assistance, but … as more and more functions are doable online, we’re trying to save people the trips, wherever they may be going,” she said. “That’s sort of the way that society is moving, in general, not just within the IRS.”
Truckers who previously stopped by the West Chester office to file their federal highway use tax return may find the Form 2290 in electronic format at www.irs.gov/uac/e-file-Form-2290, Jenkins said.
But the closure will likely mean that residents of Butler or Warren counties will spend more time getting to and from the IRS office and incur additional expenses for gas and parking, according to Tim Feldman, president of the local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union.
“I question that it’s proper service to our taxpayers,” Feldman said. “If taxpayers who live in the area want to interact face to face, they’re now going to have to go to Dayton or Cincinnati or try to find it at IRS.gov or call the phone line and questions are not always simple. It’s good to have an interaction.”
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