There are a record number of tax returns awaiting processing at the IRS. Due to this, refunds may take longer this year than usual.
Nearly 25 million tax returns from the previous year remain in the possession of the federal agency. Many refunds have been put on hold for more than ten months now.
Some people may have to wait a while longer this year because of the current pace of things. And that’s before you factor in all the paperwork that the IRS has to deal with.
Audits and enforcement and collection actions do not count towards the 25 million tax returns. Appeals and notifications of tax liens do not count.
Customer service will suffer as a result of the IRS’s ongoing backlog of tax returns to process. In the past, the Treasury Department has expressed concern about response times and the quality of the responses.
Tax returns filed in 2022 are at the end of a long line because the IRS processes them sequentially.
Also Read: Face-to-face assistance will be available this Saturday at the IRS Detroit office.
Backlogged Tax Returns Are Just One of Many IRS Issues
Refunds may be delayed due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to the backlog of tax returns. There were numerous IRS employees who expressed their displeasure with the current state of the tax season.
As none of them had been given permission to speak publicly on the subject, they all chose to remain anonymous. However, all of them said the same thing.
Due to a number of major issues, this year’s filing season is expected to be delayed. When it comes to staffing issues, for starters. They’re having a hard time finding, recruiting, and training new employees.
There has been a lot of new paperwork since the pandemic began, which means there are more errors to work through. To top it all off, the IRS is under increasing legislative pressure to expedite the distribution of these tax returns.
In addition to the time and money spent on recruiting and training new employees, the company has failed to provide adequate resources for its current workforce. Many of them have been working from home since the outbreak of the pandemic.
They couldn’t get their hands on tax returns, audits, or anything else they might need while they were there. Stimulus checks received top priority for federal funding. So, the federal agency had to make several cuts.
Post offices had to deal with their own issues for months, so paper returns piled up. As an aside, you should file your taxes online if you can. Some of these delays may be avoided.
Irregularities in the IRS’s Equipment Make It Impossible to Effectively Manage Business
The IRS workers’ equipment is partly to blame for the constant delays. According to the Washington Post, the inspector general of the IRS discovered that the IRS lacked critical supplies.
“Outdated dust collectors” in the agency’s system cause numerous paper jams. Scanners, on which the IRS relies heavily, cost the agency money.
As a result, the IRS is forced to rely more on manual verification than on automation, further adding to the backlog of tax returns.