- Taxpayers who filed a 2019 paper return may be in for a long wait.
To prevent the decimation of its ranks, the IRS had to suspend the processing of paper returns. As of May 16, it had a backlog of 4.7 million returns. There were more waiting in mail facilities. The catch-up has begun, but it’s still not up to speed. - Some taxpayers whose returns were mistakenly flagged by filters are also in for long waits.
All tax returns pass through fraud and identity theft filters, but the false positive rate is more than 50 percent. Many are inevitably for Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit, both of which often represent a substantial part of family incomes. Flagged filers are asked to submit documentation. Trouble is, there are no agents to check the docs. The IRS will get to this deluge of docs when it gets to it, which will not be soon. - Individuals who did not get their Economic Impact Payments will have to wait until … next year!
The IRS says that those who have not received their EIPs will (not may) have to wait until they file their 2020 returns to get credits on their 2020 tax liabilities. - Taxpayers needing IRS assistance have had trouble getting it.
Well duh, right? Here’s why: the IRS shut down its Accounts management phone lines, its Taxpayer Assistance Centers, its mail operations, its smoke signal receivers, its telegraph operations, and all carrier pigeons stations. The only way to get through is at IRS.gov and on automated phone lines. Regular operations are just beginning to reopen. - Official IRS notices could not be mailed between April 8 and May 31.
Consequently, notices going out now often have wrong dates, such as deadlines that have already passed. Corrections may appear on inserted notices, which are easily lost in the shuffle. - The TAS is having difficulty helping taxpayers.
TAS Case Advocates have been working remotely, but ultimately their advocacy depends on the authorization of an IRS agent. Said agent may be hard to find. The solution may be simple, but there’s a COVID-19 gap between the TAS and the IRS.
