Taxes were due in April yet the government's deadline for sending out refunds is ongoing. Over 21 million tax returns are unprocessed, up 20 million from last year. What's the reason for this large backlog?
The I.R.S has a list of reasons for late returns. Most of the backlog is paper returns, which take longer to process than electronic returns. What's worse, the I.R.S processes returns in the order they are received, meaning older returns are processed before current ones.
So who’s responsible for this growing backlog?
Budget cuts over the years have resulted in what the I.R.S. describes as staffing shortages. There are fewer workers who are inundated with ever-increasing workloads.
But there are also factors external to the I.R.S. that have slowed refunds.
Americans are suffering from the worst economy since the great recession of 2008. Fears of a recession are growing and high inflation has resulted in skyrocketing consumer prices.
It’s tough financially for many, and tax refunds could help many of our financial situations.
Tax returns are late for a variety of reasons but in the face of an unstable economy and growing recession fears, many of us are feeling the effects of our missing refunds. While we may not be able to speed up the process, at least we know what’s going on!