Joyce wants Biden’s plan on addressing federal tax backlog

U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) recently requested that the Biden administration detail how it plans to manage an ongoing federal tax return processing backlog during the current 2022 tax filing season.

“My office has received dozens of requests from constituents asking for help with challenges they’re facing with the IRS,” Rep. Joyce said in a Feb. 1 statement. “Ohioans don’t need to be burdened with additional unwarranted surveillance and auditing. They simply need the IRS to manage its current workload effectively and on time.”

The congressman added that the “uncertainty brought on by this backlog and the delays it causes places a real strain on Ohio families and businesses, particularly those living on the margins.”

Rep. Joyce reiterated his stance in a Jan. 27 letter sent to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in which he requested answers on how they plan to manage the backlogs and expressed concerns about constituents “looking for an update on the status of their months-delayed return feeling completely helpless.” 

“I recognize that the pandemic has created unexpected challenges for Treasury and the IRS, including COVID-19 related staffing shortages,” wrote Rep. Joyce. “I also know that IRS is working with an outdated IT system, which has hampered its processing capability. I stand ready to work with you to address both problems.”

“I am not, however, enthusiastic about Treasury’s recent wide-ranging proposals to transform the IRS into an overbearing agency much more involved in the lives of ordinary taxpayers,” he wrote, noting that the Treasury Department has proposed providing the IRS with as much as $80 billion in additional funding over the next decade, in part to deploy over 80,000 new agents. 

The congressman thinks that the Treasury Department has used pandemic-related delays to justify “this radical and expensive transformation of the IRS,” which he said would burden Americans with additional unwarranted surveillance and auditing. 

“They simply need the IRS to manage its current workload effectively and on time. Rather than releasing more statements on why Congress should provide the IRS with tens of billions more dollars for enforcement, I ask that Treasury work with the IRS on a plan to reduce the processing backlog the IRS currently faces,” according to his letter. “As the 2022 tax filing season is already underway, with Tax Day less than three months out, this challenge requires a response in the immediate future.”