Jay Heflin of the Washington Examiner delivers bad news to those hoping for quick federal tax refunds.
Tax season kicked off last Monday, and the biggest question on most taxpayers’ minds is how quickly they will get their refunds. Receiving a refund can normally take up to six weeks, but staffing issues at the agency might make that turnaround time much longer.
Customer service is a big part of making tax seasons successful, and the Internal Revenue Service is one of the lowest-scoring agencies in that area, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service annual report to Congress for 2019.
Budget cuts are a contributing factor to the IRS’s poor customer service — it’s harder to garner more hires with less money. Agency head count has fallen by 20% over the past 10 years, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, while the number of tax returns to process has increased by 9%.
Last year, only 29% of taxpayer phone calls to the IRS were answered. That is down from 35% in 2018, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service. …
… For 2020, the IRS received a 1.8% increase in funding, a decline when adjusted for inflation. The Tax Policy Center recently reported that IRS funding fell 21% between 2010 and 2020, when adjusting the appropriations for inflation.
The IRS is no different from any other organization that experiences staffing shortfalls, but the problem becomes even more acute when amended returns are thrown into the mix. In any given year, the IRS processes amended returns that it has already examined but taxpayers want changed. Returns can be amended up to three years prior to 2019, and they potentially complicate the issue to review current-year tax returns in a timely manner.
