Erin Collins

Peter Musurlian

February unfolds as IRS enters into its annual pressure testing

The IRS has made measurable progress on customer-service staffing over the last couple of years.

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Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., speaks during a news conference

Senators press for barcodes on tax returns so IRS can process them faster

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Tax Season Stats

IRS digs out from pandemic-era challenges, but struggles on some hiring goals, watchdog tells Congress

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Alex Culbertson

If a tax law perplexes the public, it also makes life difficult for the IRS

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Charles Rettig

IRS awards $1K bonuses to ‘surge team’ employees tackling tax return backlog

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Getty Images/iStockphoto/marcnormanInternal Revenue Service sign with a traffic signal in the foreground indicating a red light.

IRS plans pivot to Login.gov, lets users create online accounts without facial recognition

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(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)1040 and instructions

IRS creates ‘surge team’ to address backlog, scraps plan to close tax processing center

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AP/Patrick Semanskyaudit rate

IRS gearing up for next filing season but still dealing with 6M tax return backlog

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(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)1040 and instructions

IRS employees brace for another tax season hampered by the pandemic

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How can the IRS improve its operations for the next filing season?

For how the agency might be improving things for the next filing season, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins.

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(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)FILE - In this photo March 22, 2013 file photo, the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington. The IRS website to make payments went down on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. The IRS did not have an immediate explanation for the failure. But it said on its website that its online payment system became unavailable at 2:50 A.M. ET on Tuesday.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

IRS HR office understaffed ahead of agency’s hiring surge, watchdog warns Congress

The National Taxpayer Advocate is warning Congress that the IRS has fallen behind on hiring goals in recent years, and that its human resources office…

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(Tasos Katopodis/Pool via AP)FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2020, file photo Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig testifies before a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing in Washington. At a Senate hearing Rettig said Tuesday, April 13, 2021, that he expects to meet the July 1 deadline in the new pandemic rescue law for starting a groundbreaking tax program aimed at reducing child poverty. That means new advance monthly payments of as much as $300 per child could begin flowing to lower-income families this summer. (Tasos Katopodis/Pool via AP, File)

IRS plans ‘significant hiring’ to stay ahead of 52K employees expected to leave in coming years

While President Joe Biden has proposed increased IRS spending by $80 billion over the next 10 years, the long-term nature of workforce planning and IT modernization requires a commitment to steady budget increases.

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