republicans have reduced funding of the IRS so that they won't have the ability to audit the super-rich.
By Andrew Keshner
Last Updated: Feb. 9, 2022 at 9:28 a.m. ET
First Published: Feb. 8, 2022 at 6:16 p.m. ET
The Internal Revenue Service has way too many unprocessed tax returns from last year — and far too few job applications for workers who will help the agency dig out of the backlog.
Though the IRS is seeking to fill 5,000 positions at several campuses across the country, only 179 positions have been filled so far, according to Erin Collins, national taxpayer advocate at the IRS.
At same time, the IRS is facing a backlog that, as of late December, included 6 million unprocessed 2021 tax returns and another 2.3 million amended returns.
The pay for the clerical jobs wading through the paperwork isn’t exactly enticing, Collins said in congressional testimony Tuesday. Many of the roles connected to submission-processing start at a federal-worker pay grade that’s just under $25,000 a year, she said.
At a time when employers are raising wages to draw in and keep workers during a labor shortage, “it is not surprising that the IRS is having difficulty finding enough suitable job applicants,” she wrote in testimony to a House of Representatives Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee.
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The backlog is the result of temporary IRS office closures early in the pandemic, juggled against the agency’s duties distributing three rounds of stimulus checks, Child Tax Credit payments and various tax-law changes. For years, the IRS workload has been increasing as its headcount has been contracting, the agency said.
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