Like businesses all over the country, IRS is facing work backlogs and staffing challenges that are causing delays in communication and processing—and frustration among taxpayers.
Recently, we received a brief update from IRS with the good news that more than 11,000 employees were called back to work on June 1st. The bad news is that they are reportedly returning to more than 10 million pieces of unopened mail, and a case load that dates back to mid-March, when the shutdown began in earnest. We also learned that some IRS offices that had reopened had to close again due to local spikes in cases of the virus. What this means for all of us is that getting answers from IRS about specific personal tax situations will continue to be a difficult task for the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, if you have more general questions, irs.gov provides many helpful tools and resources that don’t require endless hours on hold listening to muzak. We recommend starting there if you have questions.
