Number of Calls to IRS This Year = 10 Times Virginia Population of 8.5 Million!

Only 3% of 85 Million Callers Reached a Live IRS Representative!!

July 2021

The above headline is intended to offer perspective on the current scourge many U.S. taxpayers are enduring. Frustration is at the boiling point for Americans who have dutifully filed their taxes on time … yet are suffering inaction by the agency to issue tax refunds. A common occurrence is a delay of 60 to 90 days for the IRS to at least post a payment.

Note: Regrettably, refund delays are old news. See the May 2021 Blair Bulletin article Where’s My Refund!
You’ll see our presentation … a balanced view of both taxpayer frustrations seeking facts and IRS promises of fulfillment.

Additionally, IRS non-performance is resulting in demand notices to taxpayers for tax payments already submitted when due. Much of this is blamed on the backlog of unopened mail as detailed in our May article. Compliant taxpayers’ checks sit in a trailer while the agency pursues collection procedures … fueling the added taxpayer fear of receiving an “intent to levy” notice.

Taxpayers seeking answers are stymied by the inability to reach a live person at IRS by phone. As stated in the headline for this piece, so far this year the agency has received over 85 million phone calls … an historic record in contrast to 7.3 million and 12.1 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Phone calls to the agency leave the taxpayer on “hold” sometimes for hours. Consequently, important requests go unanswered … further frustrating taxpayers with no guidance of what to do next to confirm compliance or direction to remedy if needed.

Perhaps there is hope for relief on the horizon. As of June 25, IRS had a backlog of 16.7 million 2019 and 2020 individual returns that require manual processing. The agency expects to complete processing 2019 Forms 1040 that were filed on paper before the end of this summer. This effort coupled with new returns trickling in at a slower rate than during the filing season offers the potential to break the logjam.

Stay tuned. We’ll keep you posted.