American taxpayers face delayed tax refunds as a result of an ongoing backlog at the IRS. 

Some taxpayers are struggling to pay for basic expenses while they wait for their tax refunds, others are overwhelmed with worry and uncertainty, and President Biden has no plan to address the crisis.

A report from Business Insider highlights how devastating this tax filing season has been for many Americans:

• “Every morning at 6:58, Kathie Kong gets ready to call the IRS from her home in California. But even when she calls at 7 a.m. on the dot — when the phone line opens — she gets the message that the agency has already hit its daily limit for calls.”

• “Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, has said that as of mid-December, 6 million original tax returns were still unprocessed, and 2.3 million amended returns remained unprocessed.”

• “Those returns represent millions of Americans waiting on money that they may rely on for essentials like groceries and childcare. […] The pandemic caused its own difficulties with staffing and operations — and then Congress made stimulus payments and the child tax credit the IRS’s domain as well.”

• “2021 was ‘the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced,’ Collins said. But that backlog is more than just a pile of mail: Many families depend on tax refunds for basic expenses or as a financial buffer. Now those delays are hitting families in their wallets — and the country is heading into yet another filing season that Collins said she was ‘deeply concerned about.'”

• “In the first half of 2021, the IRS had just under 15,000 people to handle 240 million calls coming in — amounting to roughly one person for every 16,000 calls.”

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KEY BACKGROUND:

President Biden has no plan to address the historic backlog at the IRS.

• The Biden Administration has failed to help American taxpayers this tax filing season by not addressing the IRS’s backlog, instead adding more to the agency’s plate and advocating for a weaponized IRS.
• Within his first year in office, President Biden has overseen $6 trillion in total spending with more than $1 billion earmarked specifically by the Democrats for COVID response by the IRS, but the agency has not spent a dime on the backlog.

READ: Correcting the Record: IRS Has Failed American Taxpayers

Ways and Means Republicans have been urging President Biden to help taxpayers for more than a year.

• In January, top Republicans at the Ways and Means Committee and the  Appropriations Committee sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig requesting a plan on how the IRS would address the more than 16 million outstanding tax returns.
• In December, 99 House Republicans, including House Republican Leadership and all Ways and Means Republicans, urged Commissioner Rettig to provide information on how the agency plans to resolve its process and prepare for the upcoming 2022 tax filing season.

READ: Brady: 2022 Tax Filing Season is Yet Another Crisis for American Taxpayers