WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is under pressure from a large group of lawmakers to stop penalties and pause automated collections from taxpayers whose returns have been caught in a processing backlog.
In a letter signed by at least 216 Republicans and Democrats from both the House and Senate, the legislators urged the IRS to streamline the processes for resolving penalty-abatement issues and amended tax returns. They also asked for a halt in automated collections until the agency could work through some of the backlog and give relief to taxpayers who had already paid at least 70% of their taxes.
The IRS had more than 10 million unprocessed tax forms as of December, according to the letter, led by Senators Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican. The IRS has said it generally starts a tax season with fewer than 1 million unprocessed forms. Representative Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat, is leading the effort in the House.
