Posts on enQ Blog

California SB 122: Sales Tax on enQ's Software Platform Begins January 1, 2027

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Starting January 1, 2027, enQ will be required to collect California sales tax on software-as-a-service (“SaaS”). If your enQ account has a California Service Address, the Software platform portion of your charges will be taxed at the 7.25% statewide rate plus any local district taxes where you’re located. As of this writing, that’s a combined rate of 7.25% to 11.25%. The tax will appear as a separate line on your invoice.

Introducing Manager Permissions: Delegate Confidently with Secure Role-Based Access

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Account owners can now share limited, role-based access with specific team members called managers. Each manager can be assigned a clearly defined set of permissions, allowing you to delegate responsibilities securely while maintaining control of your account.

The new manager permissions tab provides role-based access control for the following roles:

Admin - Full access except for the owner profile. Can add admins, but cannot edit or remove the owner.

Finance - Access to billing, invoices, call rates, and subscription. No access to users or manager permissions.

New Line: Nonprofit Eligibility Determinations for Tax Exempt and Government Entities

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000

enQ services two IRS lines for Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE), which provide guidance and support to charities, nonprofits, and government organizations regarding their tax-exempt status.

Account Services Line (TE/GE)

IRS Direct (slow) Number: 877-829-5500 → 1 → 2 → 2
enQ Fast Access Number: (877) 758-7781
This department assists charities and other nonprofit organizations with account-related and procedural questions, including tax-exempt status and tax liability, IRS notices, and filing requirements and updates.

Transition to Pre-Paid Billing Model

Fri, 30 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000

We’re updating our billing model to improve your experience, effective July 1, 2025.

Going forward, your account deposit will no longer be required and will instead be credited toward your next invoice.

We’re transitioning to a prepaid subscription model with postpaid billing for any additional usage. This means:

Your base subscription and its taxes will be charged upfront.
If there are any overage charges, those — along with their applicable taxes — will appear on your next billing cycle.

Your July 2025 invoice will include:

enQ, Inc. is now Instant Telecom Solutions, Inc.

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Instant Telecom Solutions, Inc. (“Instant Telecom”) has agreed to acquire assets from enQ, Inc. (“enQ”), including enQ’s Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) customers, except those who affirmatively elect not to transfer their service to Instant Telecom.

The effective date of the transaction will be October 1, 2023. Unless you elect to cancel your services with enQ prior to October 1, 2023, your service will be transferred to Instant Telecom. Until the effective date of the transaction, enQ will continue to provide services pursuant to the Terms and Conditions set forth at callenq.com/oldterms.

Taxes & Fees

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 16:25:58 +0000

Starting February 2, 2023, enQ will include taxes & fees in the invoice.

Please see enQ’s detailed Tax & Fee Disclosure for more information about what taxes and fees are being collected.

enQ has updated the terms section 29 Taxes & Fees with additional information such as the handling of exemption certificates.

If you have a tax exemption certificate, please email it to support@callenq.com.

Supply and Demand Pricing Update

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 13:11:26 +0000

Dear enQ Customers,

Summary of enQ’s recent changes: Why and What

enQ’s goal is to offer reasonable hold times to its customers.

The optimal way to do this was to introduce supply and demand pricing.

enQ first lowered the price per minute on all departments
enQ then floated the rate to supply and demand

Supply and Demand Pricing Update

Peak enQ hold times have come down relative to the previous weeks.

Changes to enQ Subscriptions & Terms

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 13:13:58 +0000

Dear enQ Customers,

enQ continues to provide you with the best possible service in reaching an IRS agent in up to 90% less time by continuing to innovate in the face of market challenges.

Regarding the IRS’ pilot audio ReCaptcha, enQ has developed a right-to-quality-service hybrid solution to solve our customer’s needs.

At the moment, enQ provides access to all IRS departments at the same billing rate. However, some departments should be cheaper, and some should be more expensive depending on their respective load and enQ’s efforts in acquiring those agents. enQ will be transitioning to a single tier/queue supply & demand pricing model, which reflects the aggregate market conditions in trying to reach the IRS. The pricing transition will take up to two months.

Sudden Drop in IRS Calls Answered Affecting enQ

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 15:34:21 +0000

The current IRS level of service has significantly dropped overnight - something that enQ hasn’t experienced in its 7 years of operation. I believe honesty and transparency are both fundamental when it comes to your trust and confidence in us, so I want to give you a clear explanation and the steps that we are taking.

1) Current Situation

Calls Answered by the IRS Have Been Halved: as of June 21, 2022. According to enQ’s data, the IRS without any prior notification, has throttled the number of calls it answers by an estimated 50% - a change made independent of and unrelated to enQ. We expect this dramatic decrease in service levels to last until the next tax season. enQ believes this throttling is caused by a reallocation of IRS resources to address the significant backlog of 30 million paper returns (as mandated by Congress).

Priority Tiers

Sun, 26 Sep 2021 12:28:41 +0000

Dear enQ Customer,

General Update

To continue providing a great level of service in our product, we are making some changes to our operating structure.

We understand that your time is important, so we’ll get straight to the point.

The IRS continues to disconnects most calls after playing the following message:

“We are sorry, but due to extremely high call volume in the topic you requested, we are unable to handle your call at this time. Please try again later or on our next business day. Thank you.”

enQ Guarantee

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 09:05:36 +0000

enQ can no longer guarantee the 3-minute wait time as the IRS performance has degraded substantially.

The IRS disconnects most calls after playing the following message:

“We are sorry, but due to extremely high call volume in the topic you requested, we are unable to handle your call at this time. Please try again later or on our next business day. Thank you.”

enQ does connect callers when the IRS answers, but it cannot make the IRS answer the phone.

Very High enQ Hold times – enQ Performance update

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:04:37 +0000

Dear Customer,

enQ Hold Time Performance

enQ hold times varied between 3 minutes and 1.5 hours in the past week(s).

IRS level of service particularly in Practitioner Priority Service Individual has degraded severely, with other departments serviced by enQ failing with different degrees of severity.

The IRS level of service is not consistent throughout the day. There could be a 40 minute period with 0% level of service followed by a 3 minute period of 50% level of service.

Choose your enQ Hold Music

Mon, 14 May 2018 12:35:39 +0000

Now you can choose your hold music while you wait for enQ to connect you to the IRS.

Spanish Bumblebeat (default)

Some Sweet Day

I'm Still on Hold

I’m Still on Hold is a song created by enQ and Gabriela Flores and below is the music video:

I’m Still on Hold – Gabriela Flores

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 13:44:44 +0000

(Verse)
I finally get around to dialing the number
That 1-800 I so dearly dread, I do
I give myself a pep talk
This call won’t take that long
But an hour and 2 minutes later I was wrong

(Chorus)
I’m still on hold
I should’ve used the bathroom
My latte’s taking its toll
Feels like I’m in the twilight zone
Lost track of time and date and year
How long have I been sitting here?
As the world keeps turning endlessly
I’m still on hold

We’ve Called the IRS Over 10,000 Times. Here’s Everything We’ve Learned

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 21:06:59 +0000

One of the more frustrating tasks of your job is calling the IRS on your clients’ behalf.

These calls can take a significant amount of time and often prove to be major time investments. But, they are a necessary evil in this line of work.

Fortunately for you, IRS calls are our specialty, and we have access to valuable information that will help you handle this aspect of work. In this article, we are sharing data from thousands of calls to the IRS. From our findings, you will be able to save time on hold and negotiate cases faster than ever before.

10,000+ Calls Full Report

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 17:10:34 +0000

Download our exclusive ebook with secrets on the best time to call the IRS Automated Collections System (ACS) Line and where we reveal the truth about courtesy disconnects. Download the full report here

IRS On-Hold Time Virtually Eliminated By New Tech Startup

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 16:10:27 +0000

Beatrice, an accountant in Camden, NJ, missed her daughter’s violin recital because she was on hold with the IRS. Again.

“I work a flexible job so I can fit my kids’ events into my schedule. I’d helped Molly practice every evening after supper for weeks. But the concert was during tax season and I needed an answer on this client’s question that day, before I left the office.” So, like many working parents, Beatrice broke her promise to her daughter and missed the recital. “You should have seen her face when she walked into the house, carrying her violin. I apologized but she was crying and she stomped right into her room without saying a word. It was awful.”

An Ode to the IRS

Fri, 18 Nov 2016 15:22:49 +0000

I need to talk to the tax man today,
But I don’t want to wait on hold all day.
I don’t have a choice, so I pick up the phone,
Waiting and waiting, bored and alone.

They play me some music (if such can be called).
What’s that? A faint click…then nothing at all.
All that time waiting goes straight in the bin,
And now I must wait all over again.

When is the best time to call the IRS Practitioner Priority (PPS) Line?

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:00:21 +0000

For the IRS PPS individual line, the answer is before 8am and after 6pm US Eastern.

The below plot was from enQ call data on April 20th 2016.

Once the hold time is in the 30-40 min range, the IRS solves their hold time issue with “courtesy disconnects”, where they hang up on the caller.

If you don’t have time to wait on hold or be hung up on by the IRS, you can speak with an IRS representative almost immediately using enQ. Sign up today!

Tax Professionals can now Skip the Hold Time when Calling the IRS Practitioner Line

Tue, 12 Apr 2016 13:15:41 +0000

enQ launches a new service for tax professionals allowing them to skip the hold time when calling the IRS Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) line. Last year, the PPS “priority” line had the worst average hold time among all IRS inbound numbers at a record 45 minutes. enQ is proud to offer this service to our customers with an estimated average hold time of 3 minutes. enQ solves the hold time problem by pre-emptively waiting on hold with the IRS and letting its customer take its spot in line for a fee. Learn more at callenq.com.

Sick Of Waiting On Hold With The IRS? callenq.com Gets You To The Front Of The Line

Fri, 04 Mar 2016 20:32:50 +0000

The IRS is notorious for their poor customer service. Recent reports from the Government Accountability Office show that just 38% of taxpayers looking to speak with a live person were able to get through. Last year saw average wait times triple for those waiting to try to speak with someone.

“It is amazing to think that when people call the IRS to pay their taxes they have to line up for over an hour in many cases, just to try to talk to someone, and even then a majority of people fail to connect with a live person who can help them.” Said Andrew Valiente, creator of enQ — a service that helps Americans jump the phone queue when dealing with the IRS.