Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
JERSEY CITY, N.J. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee that oversees the Internal Revenue Service, was joined today by U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., Rutgers Law Tax Clinic representatives, tax professionals and taxpayers, as he reiterated his calls for the agency to take immediate actions to get back to basics, reduce its massive backlog, and improve customer service during the 2022 tax filing season.
“Since last June, I have been sounding the alarm on the customer service issues, processing delays, and anticipated challenges at the IRS given the significant outstanding backlog of tax returns. I have sent six oversight letters to the IRS urging them to get back to the basics of opening the mail, processing returns, and answering phone calls,” said Sen. Menendez. “No entity, public or private, touches more Americans than the IRS. That’s why we must have an IRS that works.”
Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the IRS has struggled with funding and personnel issues for over a decade. Between 2010 and 2019, the agency’s budget declined by $2.9 billion or 20.4 percent. This, combined with a reduction in nearly one-fourth of its workforce, created a “perfect storm” leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
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Following the onset of the pandemic, the IRS closed all of its processing facilities for almost three months and delayed the close of the 2020 filing season, leading to a backlog of 13.1 million unprocessed tax returns at the end of 2020, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, as of January 28, 2022, the IRS has 23.7 million items to process manually, including 17.9 million unprocessed returns and 5.8 million pieces of mail.
“My office has received hundreds of calls in the last year and a half on IRS-related matters – in fact, it is the single greatest issue that we are hearing about and it is time for the IRS to make changes,” added Sen. Menendez.
“The current IRS backlog is a major issue that is causing serious delays in when American taxpayers get their tax refunds,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. “I have received multiple complaints from constituents about it. I am delighted Senator Menendez has given us the opportunity to address this issue directly. I am sure all of our constituents will appreciate that we hear their concerns and frustrations and that we are working with the IRS to rectify the situation.”
“Navigating the complex tax system is a challenge in the best of times. Low-income individuals often have additional obstacles due to limited education or language barriers. Our goal is to help these individuals, who are lost in the system, achieve a result in a tax dispute,” said Sandy Freund, Clinical Professor of Law, Charles Davenport Clinical Scholar at Rutgers Law School and Director of the Tax Clinic. “However, lately, all of us in the tax community face the additional hurdle of dealing with the IRS, a bureaucracy now laden with extreme delays in case processing. Cases are taking years to resolve and supporting documents sent in by taxpayers are not being processed at all. These delays are incredibly costly to taxpayers, as refunds are being seized yearly, while cases are pending.”
“Taxpayers and tax practitioners have experienced tremendous difficulties and frustration in dealing with the IRS due to erroneous notices, delays in processing returns and correspondence, and the IRS’s failure to answer a large majority of phone calls,” said Andrea Diaz, CPA, partner at SKC & Co., CPAs, and member of the New Jersey Society of CPAs. “We appreciate the time and focus that Senator Menendez has given to remedy these issues.”
Sen. Menendez has long been sounding the alarm about customer service performance and the agency’s massive processing backlogs. Last week, Sen. Menendez and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.-07) led a bicameral effort with 45 colleagues urging the IRS to take immediate actions to reduce its massive backlog and improve its customer service during the 2022 tax filing season. Shortly after sending out letter, the IRS announced it would be putting together a second surge team to help address the massive backlogs and continue to improve customer service.
Sens. Menendez and Cortez Masto today led another letter calling on the IRS to halt its planned closure of the Austin tax processing center, given how it would impact ITIN applicants and recipients. Shortly after sending the letter, the IRS announced it would not close the Austin facility.
In January, Sen. Menendez led 210 colleagues in a bipartisan and bicameral call for the IRS to provide penalty relief for taxpayers. This spurred the agency to address some of the most painful issues facing taxpayers by temporarily halting some, but not all of the penalty notifications. Sen. Menendez also urged IRS Commissioner Rettig last year to keep phone lines open while addressing the unprecedented backlog of unprocessed returns and to take concrete steps that will allow them to return back to basics such as answering phones, providing quality online and in-person services, and processing returns in a timely manner.
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