IRS pushes filing deadline to May 17 as agency grapples with backlog of returns

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Economic Policy

IRS pushes filing deadline to May 17 as agency grapples with backlog of returns

Change comes as agency sends third round of stimulus payments and prepares to implement other parts of the American Rescue Plan

By Tony Romm and Jeff Stein
March 17, 2021 at 5:36 p.m. EDT

The Internal Revenue Service announced on Wednesday it is postponing the country’s tax-filing deadline until May 17, as the agency grapples with a mounting backlog of 24 million returns awaiting processing since the 2019 tax year.

The workload has put the agency underwater — and under political siege — as lawmakers fret that long-unresolved troubles at the IRS could undercut the Biden administration’s economic recovery efforts. Millions of Americans have not received some stimulus checks under prior coronavirus aid packages, even as the tax agency continued distributing payments Wednesday under the $1.9 trillion stimulus signed into law this month.

The IRS shared the full scope of its backlog with the House Ways and Means Committee and the agency’s own watchdogs in recent days. The numbers, obtained by The Washington Post, dwarf the data the IRS has shared with the public. Explaining the postponement, IRS Commissioner Chuck Reddig said in a statement the government is doing “everything possible to help taxpayers navigate the unusual circumstances related to the pandemic, while also working on important tax administration responsibilities."

{snip}

Tony Romm
Tony Romm is a technology policy reporter at The Washington Post. He has spent nearly ten years covering the ways that tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google navigate the corridors of government -- and the regulations that sometimes result. Follow https://twitter.com/tonyromm

Jeff Stein
Jeff Stein is the White House economics reporter for The Washington Post. He was a crime reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and, in 2014, founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York. He was also a reporter for Vox. Follow https://twitter.com/jstein_wapo

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/03/17/irs-deadline-delay-tax-backlog/

[PSPS]

1. Reddig is another trump toady who refuses to obey the law. Why is he still there?

He's the crook who won't obey the statute that explicitly states "shall provide" and sees his task to be to destroy the agency.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. I believe that was Mnuchin, wasn't it? NT

[PrinceHakeem]

10. Exactly. Why hasn't Biden fired him already?

[Demovictory9]

2. Its taking them longer than usual to process my return

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I didn't get Stim #2, no info available on #3

"24 million returns awaiting processing since the 2019 tax year"??????

Holy cow! That will require some personnel to work through.

[mpcamb]

5. A decade or more ago R's defunded the IRS so they lost 18,000 investigators.

The point was to make it harder to chase shady complex returns, i.e., rich dishonest people.
Fund the IRS.
Today.

[progree]

6. Payment of any 2020 taxes due also May 17. However 1st quarter estimated taxes still April 15

Various excerpts

IRS postpones April 15 U.S. tax deadline to May 17, CNBC, 537p ET 3/17/21

The IRS and Treasury Department will postpone the April 15 tax-filing deadline to May 17, the agencies announced Wednesday.

In addition, taxpayers can also delay payment of any money owed the IRS until May 17. If payers still need more time to submit their returns, they can request an extension (but not taxes owed) until Oct. 15 by filing Form 4868.

The extended deadline applies only to federal income returns and taxes, meaning that taxpayers will need to check to see if due dates for state taxes have been changed. Not all states follow the same filing deadline as the federal government.

Estimated quarterly payments are still due on April 15.

The IRS will provide more guidance on the extended filing season in the coming days, the tax collector said.

More, like the reasons, but nothing more on deadlines: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/17/irs-pushes-april-15-us-tax-deadline-to-may-17.html

IRS announcement, irs.gov : https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-day-for-individuals-extended-to-may-17-treasury-irs-extend-filing-and-payment-deadline

Besides the above information:

Winter storm disaster relief for Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas

Earlier this year, following the disaster declarations issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the IRS announced relief for victims of the February winter storms in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. These states have until June 15, 2021, to file various individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. This extension to May 17 does not affect the June deadline.

[Deminpenn]

7. The biggest issue is the IRS doesn't start processing returns

in a big way until April/filing deadline. Sent returns in last year in mid-Feb before the epidemic shut everything down. Returns sat around for 8 months before my refund arrived and had to send another set of 1 return after getting a notice that my account had a credit (equal to the payment I sent), but no return.

Had the IRS done today's work today, they'd have a lot less backlog now. As a retired fed, I empathize with overworked civil servants, but a backlog did not have to happen.

[Beringia]

8. The articles keep saying the IRS made an announcement, but I can't find their actual announcement

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-statements-and-announcements

I trust the newspapers and media, but still it should be on their actual announcement site

[hack89]

9. I got my refund in four weeks

as did my son. I filed electronically and had the money direct deposited - I wonder if that made the difference?

[James48]

11. IRS needs to go on a hiring spree.

It takes at least six months to hire from off the street and get a body in place. The Congress needs to give a huge injection of cash to the IRS to bring staffing levels up to where they should be- far above the “drown it in the bathtub” staffing levels we’ve had since Bush jr. devastated it. Staffing more than pays for itself at the IRS.

[James48]

12. From a 2030 CBO report

On IRS staffing and budget cuts:


In its most recent report on uncollected taxes, the IRS estimated that an average of $441 billion (16 percent) of the taxes owed annually between 2011 and 2013 was not paid in accordance with the law. Most of the unpaid taxes were the result of taxpayers’ underreporting their income. Through enforcement, the IRS collected an average of $60 billion of those unpaid taxes annually, reducing the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid in those years to $381 billion per year, on average.
The IRS’s appropriations have fallen by 20 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2010, resulting in the elimination of 22 percent of its staff. The amount of funding and staff allocated to enforcement activities has declined by about 30 percent since 2010.
Since 2010, the IRS has done less to enforce tax laws. Between 2010 and 2018, the share of individual income tax returns it examined fell by 46 percent, and the share of corporate income tax returns it examined fell by 37 percent. The disruptions stemming from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic will further reduce the ability of the IRS to enforce tax laws.
CBO estimates that increasing the IRS’s funding for examinations and collections by $20 billion over 10 years would increase revenues by $61 billion and that increasing such funding by $40 billion over 10 years would increase revenues by $103 billion.