With the IRS suffering a backlog of cases, Congressman Tom Reed is encouraging residents to get their tax returns filed as soon as possible.
Reed, in his weekly media call, said January 24 was the first day taxpayers could file and that he recommends residents use e-file and choose direct deposit for the quickest return that most are entitled to.
Reed said he was part of a call with the IRS Commissioner Tuesday where they encouraged the agency to get staffing back to normal as soon as possible to deal with the backlog from the 2020 tax season, “In 2021 along, our office handled 871 IRS cases directly. That meant we were helping people waiting on returns, helped people get amended returns, helping constituents communicate with the IRS, using the taxpayer advocate office as much as we possibly can.”
Reed said the Pandemic was partly to blame for the backlog with new policies and processes needing to be adopted so employees could work remotely, “The other issue is, obviously we were changing a tremendous amount of rules especially like the child tax credit for 2021. And so that caused a new set of understandings that had to go through this agency to get educated on. Who’s eligible, who’s not eligible, a lot of confusion on people in regards to that.”
Reed said in conversations with the IRS over the last ten years, they’ve encouraged the agency to embrace technology and to show plans for how what they’re doing benefits customers before Congress approves additional resources.
The federal tax filing deadline this year is Monday, April 18. That’s the day by which taxpayers must have filed their 2021 individual return and paid any remaining federal income taxes owed for last year.
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