IRS takes steps to alleviate delays, shorten backlog

The IRS announced last week that it plans to hire 10,000 employees over the next year to work on the backlog of 20 million unprocessed tax returns from previous years. They say they hope half of those hires will be in the next few months. In addition, they plan to create “surge teams” at key locations to process backlogged returns. This comes after the Washington Post released an article last month citing the many hurdles tax preparers and taxpayers are facing this filing season due to the backlog, COVID-19 related delays, and hiring struggles.

However, with new hires comes training and the impact might not be immediately evident but rather will have a long-term impact. Officials from the Treasury Department said that the goal of this “all hands on deck” strategy is to have the backlog cleared by next year’s tax season. There are no plans to delay Tax Day this year beyond April 18.

Also, they announced a plan to improve customer service, a big issue taxpayers and tax preparers have faced when seeking answers or communication from the IRS. Taxpayers may see quicker customer call back, two-way messaging, and multilingual services, according to the news release.

You can still take these measures that could help eliminate processing delays. We will continue to monitor IRS updates and ​​remain committed to providing excellent service to our clients.