The Internal Revenue Service has been responsible for distributing payments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it is quite concerning how the department is in disarray right now.
Millions of Americans are still waiting for their income tax refund from the IRS. According to CPAs, there are around $35 million tax returns that have not been processed, this is a high increase compared to the $8 million last year.
Several rounds of stimulus checks, tax credit advancement that is made to be distributed each month, and processing the 2020 tax returns contributed to the problem that the IRS is facing.
CPA Garrett Wagner discussed the backlog of refund checks Monday during News 8 at Sunrise. “It’s just one of those things that are causing CPAs, myself included, so much stress this year,” Wagner said. “
Last year we thought it was bad that the IRS by the end of 2020 failed to process around eight million tax returns. We thought that was bad. As of June 2021, the IRS has not processed 35 million tax returns, just an astounding number.”
The Internal Revenue Service’s predicament may be attributed to its lack of manpower. “The IRS for years has been short-staffed. When COVID hit, like a lot of organizations, it hit them really hard. We’ve talked about other places that have been hit by this. The IRS was hit super-hard by the shutdown,”
CPA Robert Wagner Wagner told RochesterFirst. “Then we got those three rounds of recovery and rebate checks, which were great, but they had the IRS diverting their attention from other places.”
Recommended Read: IRS Sending Refunds: Check Your Bank Account NOW
At present, there are more than 30 million people who have not yet received their tax returns. However, the IRS managed to make deposits last week for the amount that resulted from the changes in tax law that rolled out with the last two stimulus packages.
However, Wagner said that eventually the tax refund will be released. “The best message in this position is, first, know you’re not alone. A lot of people in this position feel like I must have done something wrong or my CPA or my tax preparer did something wrong.
This is an IRS problem you’re unfortunately caught up with so you’re not alone and you’ve got to be patient. There is no secret recipe to get this fixed. Even when we call the IRS we’re told the same thing – your return should be processed in three weeks.
Oh my gosh, it’s been four to five months. We’ll get to it when we get to it. So there’s no happy answer but know you’re not alone and just continue to be patient. You will get your refund at some point.”
