Feeling Stressed About Taxes? The IRS Is.

The next time you begin to feel stressed about federal taxes, consider this: As of May 31st, the IRS had a backlog of 21.3 million unprocessed paper tax returns, an increase of 1.3 million from last year!

At the end of June, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins presented her mid-year report to Congress, expressing concerns about the processing delays of these returns and the impact on refunds. When many rely on Earned Income Tax Credits to help fund their households, and employers need business tax credits to offset the pandemic's effects, these delays can exacerbate existing financial concerns.

According to Collins’ report, the IRS processed 205,000 individual tax returns per week in May and maintained a backlog of 8.2 million by the end of the month. Not counting the millions of more paper returns that will arrive before the extended filing deadline in October, the IRS would have to process over 500,000 forms per week to catch up!

Can they do it? That remains to be seen, and the prospects are not favorable at this time.

Learn more about this ongoing issue, its causes, and planned IRS solutions here: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/national-taxpayer-advocate-issues-midyear-report-to-congress-expresses-concern-about-continued-refund-delays-and-poor-taxpayer-service