Maryland Delegation Confronts IRS Commissioner on Backlogs During Virtual Meeting

“We made clear to Commissioner Rettig that as the IRS is given more tools and resources to accomplish its mission, we need to know that our constituents will see relief soon.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin led a virtual Maryland congressional delegation meeting Tuesday with Senator Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume and David Trone (All D-Md.) with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig. The meeting served as a follow up to letters from Team Maryland, as well as other Senate and House members, over the last few months, as they continue to prioritize ensuring the IRS is more responsive to the requests of Marylanders, many of whom have been caught in the massive backlog currently facing the agency that has been spread thin over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the 2021 tax season ends in less than two weeks on April 18, millions of returns remain unprocessed from the 2020 tax-filing season.

“There is a crisis at the IRS that needs to be addressed. We thank the IRS workers who, despite staffing shortages in the midst of a pandemic, were tasked with processing taxes, as well as Economic Impact Payments, Child Tax Credit advances, Employee Retention Tax Credits and other critical COVID-related programs. The recent FY 2022 spending package and the president’s budget seek to reverse the agency’s historic underfunding, but we still need high-level action from IRS leadership to reduce the backlog and put the IRS on a better path to improved customer service,” the lawmakers said after the meeting.

“We made clear to Commissioner Rettig that as the IRS is given more tools and resources to accomplish its mission, we need to know that our constituents will see relief soon. We fully acknowledge the strain the IRS and its workers have endured, but there is more that must be done to overcome these immense challenges.”

PHOTO (Left to right, top to bottom rows) 

IRS Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer Ken Corbin
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig
IRS Deputy Chief Financial Officer Bryan Musselman
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin
U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger
U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes
IRS Deputy Commissioner for Operations Jeffrey Tribiano
U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer
U.S. Rep. David Trone
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen
IRS Deputy Human Capital Officer Kevin McIver
U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume

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