agents resort to filing by forklift.
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let us pause for a moment of kudos.
last year, the irs accepted a mission impossible. it wasn’t just underfunded, understaffed, and underequipped but overloaded, overworked, and overdue.
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and then covid came back with a vengeance.
and then congress came to the rescue.
a forklift filing system
it was really amazing—even heroic—that the organization kept functioning. staff got sick. facilities shut down. people went home. work processes had to be deconstructed and reassembled. the backlog of returns built up to the point of being stored in shipping containers, continuously loaded, unloaded, and reloaded with forklifts as agents searched for files behind files under files. at the start of the filing season, the service still had 11.7 million paper returns unprocessed from 2020. as late as october 16, 2021—the end of the extended filing season—13 million returns still awaited manual processing along with 2.7 million amended returns.
congress tried to help taxpayers, but the cascade of legislation only complicated matters at the irs. the timeline was dizzying.
2020
- march 18: enactment of families first coronavirus response act.
- march 27: enactment of coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security (cares) act and first round of economic impact payments (eips).
- july 15: end date of 2020 filing season postponed.
- december 27, 2020: enactment of consolidated appropriations act, including the covid-related tax relief act and coronavirus response and relief supplemental appropriations act.
- december 29, 2020: irs starts distributing second round of eips.
2021
- february 12: the filing season begins.
- march 11: american rescue plan enacted.
- march 12: third round of eips.
- march 17: postponement of form 1040 deadline to may 17.
- may 17: postponement of tax filing and payment deadline for individuals.
- july 15: irs starts issuing advance child tax credit (advctc) payments.
- october 15: deadline for extensions.
among the new rules:
- monthly advance child tax credits.
- increase in eligibility for qualifying children to 17.
- maximum credit for children six to 17 increased to $3,000, and to $3,600 for those under six.
- taxpayers have to file schedule 8812 to reconcile aip and advctc payments.
- new “look-back” rules allowed taxpayers who earned less in 2020 than in 2019 to use their earlier income to calculate earned income tax credits.
these changes on top of the stress and pressures of the pandemic led to confusion and errors that led to more manual processing which led to delays that led to an increase in correspondence and attempted phone calls, all of which caused more delays, more stress, more backlog. just as taxpayers needed refunds to get them through desperate economic straits, they couldn’t find out why their checks never came.
the delays, frustration, and confusion at the irs spilled over to congressional representatives and the taxpayer advocate service as taxpayers sought information and resolutions. the tas itself became overloaded and had to stop taking cases when when taxpayers desperately needed assistance.
solutions
the covid pandemic complicated but did not cause the fundamental problems underlying the dysfunction at the irs. nor is the pandemic an excuse. at this point, it’s a reality, and it must be dealt with. the taxpayer bill of rights still stands. it is incumbent upon the irs, and the congress that oversees it, to make necessary changes. the tas has itemized a few:
- utilize 2-d barcoding and optical character recognition to speed processing of paper returns.
- cease collection activities in cases where the irs has not responded to correspondence within 45 days.
- implement callback technology for incoming calls.
- implement automated phone lines where taxpayers can retrieve details about their accounts, such as advctc and cips received.
- allow e-signatures and ensure secure emailing of documents.
- review 2021 error resolution system to identify cause of delays.
- program systemic reconciliation capabilities for refundable credits such as recovery rebate credit, advctc, and other lookback provisions.
- create a dashboard illustrating number of returns in inventory, number of returns delayed, number in suspense, anticipated timeframes, and other evidence of progress and problems at the irs.
- sufficient multiyear funding by congress to allow long-term irs improvements in taxpayer service.
whether the pandemic is the new normal or not, the irs needs to recover, restructure, and get realistic. hats off to the heroes have kept america a going concern, but the new normal needs a new, improved irs.