Nearly 24 million taxpayers are still awaiting their refund from the IRS for taxes paid last year – a mind-boggling number that portends severe backlogs in this year’s filing season.
Three sources told the Washington Post that the logjam is due to the IRS finding extreme difficulty in hiring and training new staff that could assist with clearing up the mess. Because of this, the IRS is considering suspending tax collections and enforcement of certain penalties.
In a letter send to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week, 30 Congressional Republicans called the situation at the IRS “untenable.”
Democrats say that Republicans are to blame.
“For decades, Republicans have starved the IRS of funding, and now American taxpayers are paying the price,” said Rep. Richard E. Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “The backlog of tax returns is but one symptom of the fundamental issue that has been ailing the IRS for too long: inadequate resources.”
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2 Responses
Gemora calls IRS “wailing poor” – because they are always claiming that they are “underfunded”. Lessons
1) fill out your W9 exemptions such that you owe money at the end, don’t trust them to return it to you (this may be even against halakha – you are providing interest-free loan to non-Jews)
2) file electronically. Maybe file on paper when you owe them. Didn’t try, but I bet they’ll cash the check fast enough.
1. The government can be trusted to catch up, eventually. Remember, they do own the virtual printing press than “prints” dollars. Ideally, one would owe a small amount at the end of the year rather than getting a refund (since a refund is in effect an interest free loan to the government), as long as one doesn’t risk a penalty for underwithholding.
2. They have more pressure than most agencies to work on site, but with just as much resistance from fearful employees (some of whom may get their news from the same sources as YWN) who want to maximize teleworking, though teleworking is probably very inefficient for the sort of work the IRS does.
3. Congress used to settle on a tax law by fall of the previous year and stop tinkering, but the last few years they have made major tax changes (including all the stimulus programs run by the IRS) through the year, which can reasonably be expected to overwhelm the IRS’s ability to keep with up the paperwork.