(TargetLiberty.org) – The year 2020 has been difficult, so most people probably don’t have many tears to spare for the IRS. But, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown up many challenges for them too, and problems at the IRS have a nasty way of becoming problems for American workers and businesses. Now, the 2020 tax season is finally nearing its belated close – but there’s a lot left to do.
On top of the difficulties caused by so many of its staff working from home, the IRS has also been helping distribute stimulus checks and other coronavirus relief. The extra workload and disruption led to this year’s tax filing deadline being pushed back from April 15 to July 15, and now the October 15 extension deadline is here.
Hi, during this time the IRS is experiencing delays in processing refunds. The IRS is currently working at 50% staffing. Processing times for tax refunds may be longer than usual because of this. There is nothing that H&R Block can do to speed up the processing at the IRS. -EG
— H&R Block Answers (@HRBlockAnswers) October 9, 2020
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told the House Oversight Committee last week that the IRS has processed over 153 million tax returns and issued 122 million refunds – but it still has 5.3 million pieces of unopened mail, and almost half of those are paper tax returns. Some of the most vulnerable workers in the US haven’t had their returns processed yet and are still waiting for desperately-needed refunds. Rettig says low-income workers, the homeless and veterans are among those being prioritized.
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