I’m an accountant and I pass this on to all my customers about how to get someone live on the phone at the IRS:
Call 1-800-829-1040
Press 1 to confirm English if you speak English.
When you get past choosing a language, in the first menu of prompts, press 2.
When it gets to the next menu with prompts, press 1.
When it gets to the next menu with prompts, press 3.
When it gets to the next menu with prompts, press 2.
The next menu will ask you to enter your SSN, it will then ask you to confirm you entered a SSN, then it will read back the number and ask you to confirm that it is the right number.
After this, it will take you to a menu with a bunch more options. Ignore them all, let the computer talk itself out and when you don’t enter any more numbers, you’ll be entered in a hold line for a live person! I recommend calling on Wednesdays or Thursdays as they seem to be the least busy, and don’t call around lunch time.
Mainly made this post after seeing a post with a lot of comments from people having trouble reaching the IRS and a live person. Hope this helps!
Edit: If you want to check that the number is real, you can check at irs.gov