As we just closed the tax filing season, the struggles of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are once again in the press, and for good reason: The Agency has been hobbled by insufficient funding, leading to staff shortages and a severe lack of tax infrastructure updates. These problems have been exacerbated by an increasing workload brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent online discussion with former IRS commissioners David Kautter and John Koskinen shed more light into what outsiders have been discussing for years: The IRS needs stable funding and to be brought into 21st century.
The numbers paint a dire picture. Nearly 24 million taxpayers are still waiting for the Internal Revenue Service to process their tax returns from 2021, shattering previous backlog records. Many taxpayers see refunds being held up for 10 months or more. Needless to say, this has resulted in widespread taxpayer frustration and anger. Let’s consider some of these problems and how taxpayers will encounter them during this filing season.
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