The Internal Revenue Service has a brutal backlog of unfinished tax returns from last year, which has triggered more tax-time anxiety than one could imagine for many tax filers.
"Paper is the IRS's Kryptonite, and the agency is still buried in it," wrote National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins in her 2021 report to Congress.This tax season looks like it might, quite possibly, beat that record as professionals prepare for continued confusion, unanswered calls at the IRS and more tax refund delays.
”I’ve had clients calling up saying ‘I’m about to lose my house,’ ” Tross said. They're not about to lose their house, she noted, but she's not sure what generated that level of panic. She asks calmly: What IRS letter did you receive?Late Wednesday afternoon, the IRS announced that it would temporarily suspend more than a dozen additional automated notices, including balance due notices and unfiled tax return notices.
One tip for the 2021 tax season from the IRS, for example, even specifically addresses an issue that can arise from those unprocessed returns. Those who received their 2020 income tax refunds, however, can file and use their AGI as they would normally. For example, you'd go to a copy of your 2020 tax return and find your actual adjusted gross income or AGI on line 11 of the Form 1040.
Carlos Lopez, an enrolled agent and founder & CEO of the Latino Tax Professional Association, indicated that the stress of the tax season was already evident in the comments in the chat portion of the forum — and encouraged tax preparers to eat healthy and take walks during the day to relieve stress.
The backlogs led to more paperwork, leading to more phone calls, leading to more frustration, according to tax experts who are dealing with taxpayers regularly. "Consequently, the IRS sends numerous mistargeted notices, liens and levies. Additionally, the IRS is only answering 9% of all calls and only 3% of calls regarding individual income tax returns, which prevents taxpayers from resolving these straightforward issues."Shortly after tax season began, the IRS caused more of an uproar among taxpayers who began receiving notices about 2020 returns that they had sent in long ago.
Soon after taxpayers and others voiced their complaints, the IRS announced that it would "suspend notices in situations where we have credited taxpayers for payments but have no record of the tax return being filed."
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