With tax-filing season already underway, experts are warning taxpayers to brace for another year of delays and complications — underscoring the importance of filing early and preparing your information carefully.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) started accepting 2021 tax returns on Jan. 24, more than two weeks earlier than the start of last year’s filing date. Most taxpayers have until April 18 to file, but the agency has a long road ahead of it. Coronavirus stimulus checks and scaled-up child tax credit payments are creating extra work for IRS officials at the same time as widespread staffing shortages and a backlog of unprocessed paper returns stretching into the millions.
“In many areas, we are unable to deliver the amount of service and enforcement that our taxpayers and tax system deserves and needs,” according to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement. “This is frustrating for taxpayers, for IRS employees and for me.”
