IRS to celebrate new center at 30th Street

It took more than a year, but 5,000 IRS employees have finally set up shop in their new home, a five-floor, 862,692-square-foot building where the 30th Street Station post office once stood, a move the IRS is celebrating with a ribbon-cutting Tuesday.

The $252 million renovation, overseen by Brandywine Realty, was completed in September. Employees have been relocating in phases since the fall.

"We are now fully functioning and operating," IRS spokesman Bill Pressman said.

The facility, however, is not open to the public; taxpayer assistance is at other locations, by phone, and by e-mail at www.irs.gov

Working at centrally located 30th Street means IRS employees can now more easily travel to work via public transit. Previously, many had to drive to their headquarters in Northeast Philadelphia - six buildings at 11601 Roosevelt Blvd. and a seventh nearby.

The increasing obsolescence of paper underlies the change. Pressman said 70 percent of tax returns were filed electronically in 2010.

The IRS Campus, at 29th and 30th Streets, is not a public-access Taxpayer Assistance Center, but there is a Center City location available for taxpayer assistance.