The IRS is Backed Up! 10,000 New Workers Are Coming to Help

In the midst of tax season, there are many people around the country who may be awaiting their tax refund. Long waits have caused a wave of frustration for many who are in need of their refunds to fund a plethora of important expenses. The IRS is now aiming to mitigate this issue by hiring 10,000 new workers to help them catch up on all the tax forms that are coming in. How so? Well, the IRS seems to have a plan in place to expedite the hiring process.

Shifting to a more automated process when it comes to bringing in new workers is one of a few ways the IRS hopes to speed up the process. In this day and age, automation seems to be the way to go to help ensure speed and hopefully efficiency. There are also talks about bringing in contract workers to assist with paper processing and duties in the mailroom. This would be huge. However, a change like this cannot happen overnight.

According to ABC News, the IRS has noted that "the agency faces a backlog of around 20 million pieces of correspondence, which is more than 15 times as large as in a normal filing season." The size of the IRS workforce has stayed the same since the year 1970 which is one factor holding the IRS back from fulfilling tax duties in a timely matter.

Through hiring fairs in Austin, Kansas City, and Ogden, Utah, they can use the "direct-hire authority" method so that workers can be onboarded in a quicker fashion which means that they would be able to start 30-45 days after they are offered the job. The IRS will create "a 700-person surge team to process new returns, adding 2,000 contractors to respond to taxpayer questions about stimulus and child tax credit payments." This, along with cultivating brand new automated voice and chatbots to tackle taxpayers' questions.

The desired outcome will hopefully come in the form of a much smaller backlog of tax forms and peace of mind for many others. For more information on what the IRS is cooking, please visit the link below!

What questions do you have about tax season? We are here to provide help with tax preparation, accounting, payroll management, and business formation! R&I Tax and Bookkeeping is here to help! You may contact us via our 'Contact' page at https://www.ritbsinc.com/contact. We can also be reached via phone at 253-777-1106.

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Hussein, F. (n.d.). ABC News. Retrieved March 14, 2022, from https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/irs-plans-hire-10000-workers-relieve-massive-backlog-83370900