IRS STILL BEHIND DUE TO COVID

IRS still behind due to Covid. The IRS, which closed down back in January of 2020 until nearly July of 2020, fell behind dramatically from the assigned duties that Congress has mandated by 15law that the agency carry out. In addition to its normal duties, tax law changes implemented by both the Trump and Biden administrations had to be administered, as well as the additional duties of administering the Covid relief money, as it was conditioned upon certain tax filing requirements. All this, right in the middle of the IRS updating on of the oldest computer systems in the entire federal government. I spoke with a Tax Professional who was at a continuing education class in May of 2021 and a IRS Revenue Agent was giving a class and mentioned that the 15 million plus pieces of mail that the IRS had backlogged during the crisis, had been worked down to half a million. Sixteen months to work thru the backlog of mail, let alone all the other work piled on the agency. But not to worry, President Biden and the Congress worried over climbing deficits, infused $80 billion into the IRS to up its workforce and get them back to snuff. It is only a matter of months before the old IRS is back collecting taxes in an aggressive manner once again. They are doing this, anticipating a bold economic recovery. IRS still behind due to Covid.

Last spring the IRS also built up a backlog of unprocessed tax returns when it closed its facilities as Covid cases surged across the country . It's gotten to the point that some people who are waiting for their 2019 refund have already received their refund for 2020 tax return season. Charles Rettig, IRS Commissioner, explained there's a separate bucket of approximately 6 million returns, "that are essentially in suspension". This makes it difficult for people who are trying to get tax resolution services and file tax returns. These returns aren't awaiting processing, there's some kind of open question gumming up the works for them, he said.