“For the third filing season in a row, taxpayers confront vexing customer service challenges as they attempt to fulfill their tax filing obligations. With tens of millions of 2021 tax returns still to be filed, the most recent data we have on this year’s season is concerning, highlighting longstanding issues the IRS has not adequately addressed,” he told a Senate Finance Committee hearing. Crapo is the ranking Republican on the panel.
“For example, more than 60 percent of the millions of items of taxpayer correspondence and amended returns have sat in storage for more than three months, an increase of nearly 30 percent over last year,“ he said. ”Average hold times for the lucky few taxpayers who reach the IRS by phone are 28 minutes, an increase of nearly 50 percent over last year.
“Scores of taxpayers have seen refunds delayed while their return is suspended for various reasons. Millions of prior-year tax returns await processing. The IRS’s management of paper-filed returns is a persistent problem that the National Taxpayer Advocate recently noted goes back decades.”
Instead of addressing the customer service problems, Biden’s budget proposal puts more tax dollars behind auditing more tax returns and stricter enforcement of the tax code, Crapo said.“This year’s presidential budget request seeks a large enforcement funding boost, and its ‘reserve fund’ placeholder for the reckless Build Back Better legislation would provide a truly massive $80 billion infusion of mandatory funding, primarily focused on enforcement. The reserve fund could also accommodate the administration’s chilling proposal to monitor Americans’ bank account flows of as little as $600,” he said.
