Could your tax refund check be delayed? Representatives from the Treasury Department told journalists on Monday that the Internal Revenue Service faces “enormous challenges” in the upcoming tax filing season. The Washington Post writes:
In a phone call with reporters, Treasury officials predicted a “frustrating season” for taxpayers and tax preparers as a result of delays caused by the pandemic, years of budget cuts to the IRS, and the federal stimulus measures that have added to the tax agency’s workload.
Typically, IRS officials enter filing season with an unaddressed backlog of roughly 1 million returns. This year, however, the IRS will enter the filing season facing “several times” that, Treasury officials said, although they declined to give a more precise estimate.
The tax filing deadline is set for Monday, April 18th and there are no current plans to extend that date. The IRS budget has been slashed in recent years and it’s going into peak season with a workforce that is roughly the same size it was in 1970, and the Post reports the U.S. population has grown 60% since then.
The agency also had fewer than 15,000 people tasked with handling more than 240 million calls, which translates into roughly 16,000 calls per employee. Treasury officials also said there are fewer auditors at the IRS that at any point since World War II.
Washington Post