A processing backlog at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) continues to leave countless taxpayers in the dark about the state of their returns. As of March 4, 2022, the IRS had 7.2 million unprocessed individual returns. This includes 4.2 million unprocessed individual returns, which include tax year 2021 and prior returns with errors and those returns requiring special handling such as those that require correction to refundable credit amounts. In these instances, it is taking the IRS more than 21 days to issue any related refund and in some cases this work is taking 90 to 120 days.
Additionally, as of February 26, 2022, the IRS had 2.1 million unprocessed Forms 1040-X with a current completion timeframe of 20 weeks. Individual returns are not the only forms impacted. As of March 2, 2022, the IRS had 2.5 million unprocessed Forms 941 and 360,000 unprocessed Forms 941-X.
As the frustrations spill over to social media, the IRS continues to recommend their online tools, “Where’s My Refund?” and “Where’s My Amended Return?” for the most up to date processing status available.
In an effort to relieve pressure, the IRS has stopped sending millions of automatically generated letters that tell individual and business taxpayers they’re late in filing returns or making payments, which should keep recipients from mailing back responses and adding more paper to the pile. Furthermore, the IRS plans to hire 10,000 workers to tackle the massive backlog but with the 12 week training program just for the “basics,” taxpayers should continue to expect more frustrations than usual this tax filing season.