chickenfeed<\/strong><\/p>\nthe covid-19 pandemic is only part of the problem. yes, of course, last year, with irs offices shuttered and phones shut down for months, a backlog built up. by the end of the year, \u201cirs had a significant backlog of returns and taxpayer correspondence,\u201d according to the gao. \n \nthe tas praised the irs for efficiently dealing with digital returns, but when it had to push actual paper, the work piled up faster than it could be processed. by mid-july of 2020, 98 percent of e-filed individual returns had been processed, but in december, the irs had a backlog of 5.5 million individual and 7.6 million business returns, 92 percent of them filed on paper.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n^ irs backlog inventory and volume as of july and december 2020<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
part of the problem is that the irs has not found an effective way for teleworkers to handle paper returns. in fact, even as a third of irs staff are on paid leave, the irs has not found a generally effective way to give them alternative work assignments.<\/p>\n
the delays are more than an inconvenience to taxpayers. the cost of interest payments on delayed refunds increased 50 percent in 2020, from $2.06 billion to $3.03 billion in 2020.<\/p>\n
a billion dollars may seem like chicken feed these days, but it can add up. and add up it will if the irs fails to figure out what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cirs has not revised its estimates for addressing all of the backlogs due to operational uncertainties created by the pandemic,\u201d the gao said in a march 2021 report, \u201cactions needed to address processing delays and risks to the 2021 filing season.\u201d \u201cdoing so would help irs determine how best to address the backlog and perform 2021 filing season activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
in october of last year, at the urging of the gao, the irs identified some of the risks to the 2021 filing season, but, the report said, it stopped short of addressing all essential elements of enterprise risk management, such as identifying options for risk response.<\/p>\n
businesses too reliant on paper<\/strong><\/p>\namong the many things not identified are the reasons that 23 percent of businesses filed paper returns in 2020 even when e-filing was an option. that represents an increase<\/strong> of 26 percent over 2019.<\/p>\neven though paper returns are more costly and labor-intensive than e-filed returns, the irs has not taken specific actions to increase e-filing.<\/p>\n
forty percent of business-related tax forms cannot be electronically filed. typically, these forms come into play when the irs identifies errors or suspected identity theft, in which case taxpayers need to respond with hard-copy documents.<\/p>\n
recommendations<\/strong><\/p>\nthe gao recommends that the irs:<\/p>\n
\nrevise its estimates for resolving its backlog of work from the 2020 filing season<\/li>\n track business refund processing, such as through irs\u2019s weekly performance tracking<\/li>\n conduct an assessment to comprehensively identify barriers taxpayers face to e-filing business-related returns<\/li>\n determine what actions irs could take to address the barriers and implement those actions, as feasible<\/li>\n identify and consider implementing actions to transition staff currently on leave to active work status; this could include reassigning staff to other tasks that can be performed remotely<\/li>\n identify and document all risks to the 2021 filing season; conduct a comprehensive risk assessment, including determining the likelihood of these risks occurring and potential impact of these risks on irs\u2019s ability to carry out its mission-essential functions; and identify options to respond to each identified risk<\/li>\n monitor risks, and communicate irs\u2019s plans to manage risks and provide status updates to stakeholders<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
<\/a> \n92% of paper returns stuck in the backlog.<\/strong> \nby 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":82531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2779,1363,5,3120,3002,1906,2246],"tags":[3084,3085],"class_list":["post-82525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charts-graphs","category-featured","category-outlook","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special","category-tax-practice","category-busy-season","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nthe irs's $3-billion problem - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n