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“There will be situations where people will need to get their 2021 refund before their 2020 tax returns are processed. In some cases, he said taxpayers may receive their most recent refund before the agency can process their 2020 refund. And if they are looking at the letter, and they say that they feel like their totals are different, and they have deposits or other information that shows that this is that amount that I should report, then they should report that,” he said.Ĭorbin said the IRS encourages taxpayers who haven’t yet received their 2020 tax returns to still file their 2021 tax returns this year. “I would encourage taxpayers to file the most accurate return possible. IRS Wage and Investment Commissioner Ken Corbin, who also serves as the chief taxpayer experience officer, said the agency is looking into some press reports that claim the amount listed on these IRS notices, in some cases, doesn’t match what taxpayers actually received.Ĭorbin added that the IRS doesn’t believe that these reports are a “widespread problem.” The letter outlines the payment amounts received by the taxpayer, according to IRS records. To reduce discrepancies between the revenue taxpayers report and the figures the IRS has on file, the IRS is sending letters to individuals who received an Economic Impact Payment (EIP) or child tax credit payment in 2021. “We cannot stress this enough, there will again be delays with respect to paper tax returns this year,” Rettig said.
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The IRS has yet to process millions of pieces of mail. The IRS, meanwhile, is urging taxpayers to avoid filing a paper tax return, if possible, to reduce processing times. Taxpayers can still request an extension to file by Oct. Rettig said the IRS currently has no intention of expanding the filing season beyond the current April 18 deadline. There are many, many reasons, but the demand is significantly up,” Rettig said. “As you know, our phone lines have been jammed, and our phone lines, we anticipate, will continue to be jammed for the foreseeable future. Rettig said the IRS continues to receive millions of more calls than it can handle with its current level of staffing, and given the pandemic’s impact on call centers. However, the IRS started this year’s filing season while continuing to deal with a significant backlog of unprocessed tax returns from last year’s filing season, as well as a volume of phone calls that outpaces what the agency’s workforce is able to handle.Īs of late December, the IRS had a backlog of about 6 million unprocessed individual tax returns and 5 million pieces of taxpayer correspondence. We want to deliver refunds quickly, we want to serve as many people in the manner that they deserve, and we want to work to catch up on past tax returns that have been affected by the pandemic.” We want them to know that we are doing everything that we can to help. The IRS, he added, is taking “an all-hands-on-deck approach” to working through its backlog of tax returns, and making refunds a priority in this workload. The IRS, he added, is taking “an all-hands-on-deck approach” to.
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IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told reporters on Monday that most people who file an error-free 2021 tax return online and request a direct deposit will receive their refund within 21 days.
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The IRS, looking to avoid unnecessary processing delays at the start of this year’s filing season, is sending letters to taxpayers who received an Economic Impact Payment or child tax credit payment in 2021.
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