According to a person familiar with the preparations, the Internal Revenue Service is temporarily re-assigning approximately 1,200 personnel to help the agency manage what will most likely be one of the most challenging tax filing seasons in years.
To assist the government manages a substantial backlog of unsettled tax returns from past years, the staff will function as extra customer service agents and tax inspectors. According to the individual, who was allowed anonymity to discuss the preparations, those people will be relocated in the coming weeks and stay on through the fall.
IRS sends more than 1,000 staff to work on tax refund backlog
As the IRS began this filing season with close to 10 million unprocessed returns from prior years, the backlog has received a lot of attention compared to fewer than 1 million in normal years.
Due to IRS office closures during the pandemic and extra benefits delivered via the tax system, including stimulus payments, many have claimed that they are still waiting for settlements of refund issues from the 2020 tax season. This tax season, individuals will be able to file proper returns if they can resolve the previous year's problems.
The IRS has undergone repeated budget cuts in the last ten years and has some of the lowest employee levels in decades. According to the IRS, fewer than 15,000 workers handled more than 240 million calls made to the agency during the 2021 tax season, or approximately one person for every 16,000 calls received, according to Bloomberg.
How to check your income tax refund status?
When filers compare the total advance money received from July to December with the amount still available to claim on the 2021 return, don't underestimate the number of issues that will arise this tax season.
Take a look at the entire amount indicated on the IRS Letter 6419 or other letters that were sent to you as a first step. Two letters will be sent to a married couple who file a combined return. However, you should double-check that information with your records as well as the IRS's online database.
The letter itself lays out two crucial elements for a 2021 tax return: the total amount received in 2021 and the number of qualified children who will be included in the 2021 advance payments, as per USA Today.
Even if you do receive this money back, it's money you could have spent on something else when you sent it to the IRS in the first place. It's best to have your money available when you need it, whether it's for unexpected expenditures such as an accident or a gift for yourself.
Fortunately, you have complete choice over how much money you contribute to the IRS. You may easily modify the amount your company withholds from your paychecks to avoid overpaying the IRS. Self-employed people might simply reduce the amount of taxes they are expected to pay.
You may use the IRS's tax withholding calculator to figure out how much money you should withhold in taxes. If you pay less than what you owe the IRS, you risk paying a large fine. You've been paying too much in taxes if you're anticipating thousands in tax refunds. In the meanwhile, those who were eligible for stimulus checks in 2021 but did not get the right amount may still be able to get money.
When completing their 2021 tax returns, anybody who feels they owe more than they received will be entitled to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit. The government began handing out the third federal stimulus check in March of last year, and it was mostly based on tax returns for 2019 and 2020, The Sun reported.
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