IRS Reports Delays in Processing Refunds

In the National Taxpayer Advocate’s Annual Report to Congress, Erin M. Collins focuses on processing and refund delays and the impact on taxpayers for 2021. The 2021 Annual Report to Congress called calendar year 2021 “the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced,” reporting tens of millions of taxpayers experiencing delays in the processing of their returns, and with 77% of individual taxpayers receiving refunds, “processing delays translated directly into refund delays.”

It is reported that as of late December, the IRS had backlogs of 6 million unprocessed original individual returns (Forms 1040), 2.3 million unprocessed amended individual returns (Forms 1040-X), more than 2 million unprocessed employer’s quarterly tax returns (Forms 941 and 941-X), and about 5 million pieces of taxpayer correspondence – with some of these submissions dating back at least to April and many taxpayers still waiting for their refunds nine months later. Read more on the IRS.gov website, and contact us directly at (973) 298-8500 if you have any questions.