According to the New York Times, “The backlog of tax returns at the Internal Revenue Service has grown to more than 20 million in the last year despite efforts by the Biden administration to process filings and send out refunds more quickly”.
This news may be shocking as the IRS was granted $1.9 trillion in relief funds as part of the March 2021 stimulus package. The national taxpayer advocate, Erin M. Collins, noted “That the backlog continues to grow is deeply concerning, primarily because millions of taxpayers have been waiting six months or more to receive their refunds.”
Also noted in the article, the IRS set a goal of hiring 5,473 staff this year but has only hired 2,056 so far.
Read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/business/irs-tax-return-backlog.html