as the filing season begins.
The IRS, seeking to avoid unnecessary processing delays at the start of this year's filing season, is sending letters to taxpayers who received an Economic Impact Payment or Child Tax Credit payment in 2021.
IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told reporters Monday that most people who file an error-free 2021 tax return online and request direct deposit will receive their refund within 21 days. The IRS, he added, is taking "an all-hands-on-deck approach" to working through its backlog of tax returns and making refunds a priority in this workload. “We know that people are struggling. We want you to know that we are doing everything we can to help. We want to deliver refunds quickly, we want to serve as many people the way they deserve, and we want to work to catch up on previous tax returns that have been affected by the pandemic.”
However, the IRS began this year's filing season while continuing to deal with a significant backlog of unprocessed tax returns from last year's filing season, as well as a volume of phone calls that exceeds what the agency workforce can handle. At the end of December, the IRS had a backlog of about 6 million unprocessed individual tax returns and 5 million pieces of correspondence from taxpayers.
Rettig said the IRS continues to receive millions more calls than it can handle with its current level of staffing and given the impact of the pandemic on call centers. “As you know, our phone lines have been jammed and our phone lines, we anticipate, will continue to be jammed for the foreseeable future. There are many, many reasons, but the demand has increased significantly,” Rettig said. Rettig said the IRS currently has no intention of expanding the filing season beyond the current April 18 deadline. Taxpayers can still request an extension to file before October 15. In the meantime, the IRS urges taxpayers to avoid filing a paper tax return, if possible, to reduce processing times. The IRS has yet to process millions of pieces of mail. "We can't stress this enough, there will be delays to paper tax returns again this year," Rettig said. To reduce discrepancies between taxpayers' reported income and figures the IRS has on file, the IRS is sending letters to people who received an Economic Impact Payment (EIP) or child tax credit payment in 2021. The letter describes the payment amounts received by the taxpayer, according to IRS records.
IRS Salary and Investment Commissioner Ken Corbin, who also serves as director of taxpayer experience, said the agency is investigating some media reports that claim the amount in these IRS notices, in some cases, does not match what taxpayers actually received. Corbin added that the IRS does not believe these reports are a "widespread problem." “I would encourage taxpayers to file the most accurate return possible. And if they're looking at the letter and saying they feel like their totals are different, and they have deposits or other information that shows this is the amount I'm supposed to report, then they should report that," he said.
Corbin said the IRS encourages taxpayers who have not yet received their 2020 tax returns to file their 2021 tax returns this year. In some cases, he said taxpayers may receive their most recent refund before the agency can process their 2020 refund. “There will be situations where people will need to get their 2021 refund before their 2020 tax returns are processed. They shouldn't worry about that. We continue to work on 2020 returns,” Corbin said. Taxpayers who file their 2021 taxes online but haven't yet processed their 2020 return should enter $0 as their 2020 adjusted gross income, Corbin said.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic on the IRS workforce, Rettig said the IRS now works more remotely than it did in the early stages of the pandemic. “The IRS of the last two years is different than the IRS of three, five or 35 years ago. The pandemic has brought the IRS to a nature where it had to take certain risks to accomplish our mission, to manage certain risks to distribute the stimulus payments, to distribute them, as the statute says, as quickly as possible. I'll be the first to say that we didn't always get it right, but I want you to know that we always tried to get it right," he said. Corbin said the IRS has its largest number of customer service representatives available to take calls, and the agency is able to take more calls than in the past.
"What's really causing people to not be able to get the service they're looking for and need from the IRS is the amount of all the demand coming into the IRS," Corbin said. Last year, the IRS received nearly 120 million calls, but typically receives about 35 million calls in a typical year. Corbin said the IRS answered about 41 million calls through its automated phone services, up from 31 million a year earlier. Corbin said the IRS continues to hire during tax filing season to add more customer service representatives and "provide the kind of service taxpayers deserve." "We know this is a frustrating situation, and we're doing everything we can to continue to work through this, while also making sure the current tax season runs smoothly," he said. Adding to the challenges of the pandemic, the IRS faces increasing demands to modernize the customer experience, despite a shrinking workforce and some of the federal government's oldest legacy IT systems. “For too long, the IRS has suffered too little in providing the American people with the service they deserve,” Rettig said.
"What's really causing people to not be able to get the service they're looking for and need from the IRS is the amount of all the demand coming into the IRS," Corbin said. Last year, the IRS received nearly 120 million calls, but typically receives about 35 million calls in a typical year. Corbin said the IRS answered about 41 million calls through its automated phone services, up from 31 million a year earlier. Corbin said the IRS continues to hire during tax filing season to add more customer service representatives and "provide the kind of service taxpayers deserve." "We know this is a frustrating situation, and we're doing everything we can to continue to work through this, while also making sure the current tax season runs smoothly," he said. Adding to the challenges of the pandemic, the IRS faces increasing demands to modernize the customer experience, despite a shrinking workforce and some of the federal government's oldest legacy IT systems. “For too long, the IRS has suffered too little in providing the American people with the service they deserve,” Rettig said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the IRS is currently dealing with an "unacceptable backlog" of tax returns and that the "customer service that people are receiving is not what the public deserves." American". “Many of those challenges are related to the pandemic, but also due to years of underfunding from Congress. The agency has not been equipped with the resources it needs to properly serve taxpayers in normal times, let alone during a pandemic,” Psaki said. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) sent a letter to the IRS and the Treasury Department on Monday, asking how the agency prepares to clear its backlog of raw 2020 tax returns now that the agency is accepting tax returns. 2021 taxes.
“Persistent delays hurt taxpayers waiting for their returns to be processed, often those who most need their refunds, and the agency has an obligation to put in place a clear plan to alleviate this backlog and avoid significant return processing delays. filed during the 2021 tax filing season,” Warner wrote.