Slow start to tax season? What you need to know
IRS received 20M returns on opening day of tax season
Lawmakers have already raised concerns that the IRS is behind on processing tax returns – even though filing season just opened up in mid-February.
In a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, Jr., D-N.J., said the pace at which the agency is processing returns already appears slower than it was last year.
“One week into a shortened filing season, the IRS reported that it received about 20 million returns on February 12, the opening day of the 2021 return filing season, and processed only 14 million returns,” Neal and Pascrell said in a statement. “This pace is significantly behind the nearly 40 million returns received and processed last year through February 14, 2020.”
Since the 2021 data encompasses just one week, it is not yet clear that the tax agency will not be able to make up the difference. However, it will have less time to do so given the truncated 2021 filing season.
Republicans have also asked for additional information regarding millions of unprocessed business and individual returns from last tax season, with some people still waiting on refunds that they should have received in 2020.
REPUBLICANS PRESS IRS ON BACKLOG OF OVER 11M UNPROCESSED 2019 TAX RETURNS
As previously reported by FOX Business, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said last month that challenges the IRS dealt with last tax season were likely to carry over into the current tax season.
“The challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic will continue through the 2021 filing season and possibly for months longer, affecting both the IRS and taxpayers,” Collins wrote in the report to lawmakers.
While some things are out of individual taxpayers' hands, there are a few ways people can try to ensure their returns are processed as quickly as possible. Those items include filing early, filing electronically and using direct deposit. Any errors on a return will also likely prolong the process.
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House Democrats have also asked for the tax deadline – April 15 – to be postponed given conditions from the ongoing pandemic.
Last year was the first time the IRS delayed the tax deadline.