Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig told Congress today the backlog of tens of millions of tax returns from last year will be processed by December.
Speaking to the House Ways and Means Committee Oversight Subcommittee, Rettig said this year’s filing season, which began January 24, has gotten off to a strong start with returns eligible for refunds processed on a priority basis ahead of returns with a balance due or fully paid. Defending his agency, he said IRS employees have performed spectacularly well during the pandemic.
Asserting the IRS audits high income taxpayers more than any other category, Rettig said the most experienced agents are assigned to the most complex tax returns.
However, he acknowledged the agency is being outgunned by major companies:
“These corporations can afford to spend large amounts on legal counsel, drag out proceedings and bury the government in paper…. People should not be able to game the system.”
Rettig said the agency is being hampered by year-to-year funding.
“Absent consistent, timely, multi-year funding,” the IRS’s top executive, whose term expires November 12, said, “we have largely been a paper-based organization operating in a digital world environment.”
Meanwhile, the IRS continues to fend off digital attacks—he said the IRS is being hit with 2.4 million cyber-attacks per day and needs to continue to advance its cyber capabilities “so we stay one step ahead of the bad actors who are attacking IRS systems.”
In opening the hearing, Acting Oversight Subcommittee Chair Judy Chu (D-CA) said only one in ten taxpayers calling the IRS is able to reach an IRS customer service representative for tax law and account answers. She contended a decade of underfunding of the IRS has led to the worst telephone service in the history of the agency.
The lead Republican on the panel, Tom Rice of South Carolina, said customer service levels at the IRS have been poor for decades but got worse in the pandemic.