Why does the IRS want Americans to file their tax return as soon as possible?
Tax season is here and if you are looking to get your return fast, we have you covered with a few tips that come directly from the IRS.
Americans are being encouraged to file their 2022 tax returns as promptly as possible to avoid facing significant delays. The IRS is entering tax season 2023 in a stronger position than last year, having hired more than 5,000 new employees to staff help lines to ensure questions from taxpayers can be addressed in an individualized and rapid manner.
In a statement released earlier this month, Acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell said: “This filing season is the first to benefit the IRS and our nation’s tax system from multi-year funding in the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Submitting your return and tracking your refund
He added that these “new additional resources, taxpayers and tax professionals will see improvements in many areas of the agency this year” and that “while much work remains after several difficult years, we expect people to experience improvements this tax season.”
However, the tax authority has reiterated the importance of submitting your tax return as quickly as possible if you hope to see your refund in a timely manner. The agency will begin processing refunds on 23 January and the sooner you can submit means the quicker your return can be reviewed.
You can check the status of your return with the IRS tracking tool. If you submit your return electronically and more than twenty-one days pass without your refund being deposited, you should use this tool to ensure the IRS hasn’t flagged it for errors that need to be addressed before a refund can be processed.
2022 – a year of “misery” for taxpayers and professionals
Earlier this month, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins released her Annual Report to Congress for 2022, describing 2020 and 2021 as “the most challenging that taxpayers and tax professionals have ever faced,” which only contributed to “more misery in 2022.” However, unlike last year’s report, Collins is hopeful that the experience for taxpayers will be better this year, noting that the “IRS has made considerable progress in reducing the volume of unprocessed returns and correspondence.”
“We have begun to see light at the end of the tunnel. I am just not sure how much further we need to travel before we see sunlight,” said Collins.