Posted on 02/13/2022 3:50:58 PM PST by Libloather
Taxpayers hoping to treat themselves this year with their tax refund money may have to wait till next year for their reward after the IRS revealed its processing backlog is more than twice as big as it previously reported.
The Internal Revenue Service is still struggling to process close to 24 million tax return filings from last year, according to a report by the Washington Post.
That's more than twice as much as the 11.4 million unprocessed business and individual returns that the tax agency reported in mid-December 2021.
The bureaucratic snarl threatens to delay many tax refunds for 10 months or more.
Data crunched by the DC newspaper showed that 23.7 million individual and business returns were being held up because they require 'manual process' -- meaning someone in the tax office has to work on them rather than passing them through on the automated system.
This human bottleneck means that 2022 processing will also be affected, the Treasury Department warned in January.
There are 9.7 million paper returns waiting processing, 4.1 million had errors with stimulus payments, Covid-19 relief funds or other problems and 4.1 million returns were amended after being filed. There were 5.8 million sets of correspondence between the tax office and Americans that had to be resolved still before the filings were signed off.
National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins penned a letter recommending the IRS delay or suspend some tax collections and penalties because of the backlog.
'The coronavirus pandemic has created enormous challenges for taxpayers, tax professionals, and the IRS. It is time to take steps to ameliorate the situation,' the NATP letter stated. 'Implementing reasonable penalty relief measures, the IRS can offer immediately, are necessary to help not only taxpayers and tax professionals but also the IRS during these challenging times.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I understand your pain. I am merely stating what I will do going forward. I got a refund for 2019, but I won’t wait for one again. Future overpayments will be applied and quarterly payments adjusted accordingly.
Everybody has to decide for themselves how to address their unique situation.
I owe taxes so I hope the backlog continues.
But next time you use Amazon, try this: Instead of ordering on the website, try printing out your order and sending it to Amazon by snail mail (if you can even find an address to mail it to) along with a check to pay for it.
See how long it takes you to receive your product doing it that way!
Filing your returns electronically is the only way to go.
That would be true if it were a significant sum of money to you. If you are rich, a couple of thousand dollars one way or the other doesn’t mean much.
That is true, but for the large majority of people, a thousand dollars is not an insignificant amount!
I’m still waiting for mine...
Yeah, true for most. Looks like I carried forward $3K, but I cut withholding from $12K to $8K - damned if I’m not still over. If you don’t know what your income is going to be, it’s better to err on the safe side.
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