Congressman Andy Biggs is demanding the employees of the internal Revenue Service return to their offices.
In a letter to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Biggs calls for the immediate return of IRS employees to “in-person work and to resume their duties to the American people.”
“The IRS must get back to work and do the job for which American taxpayers are paying them,” said Biggs. “The majority of Americans are returning to work, but not IRS employees. There is a huge, and growing, backlog of unprocessed amended tax returns because the IRS refuses to bring its employees back. That is bad for Americans…just like virtually every policy of the Biden Administration.”
LETTER IN FULL:
Charles P. Rettig
Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20224
Commissioner Rettig,
All Internal Revenue Service employees must immediately return to in-person work and resume their duties. It is completely unacceptable that the American people are unable to receive government services because IRS employees have not returned to in-person work.
Your failure to require IRS employees to return to work is causing severe harm to the American people. The IRS is unable to meet demand due to its failure to have employees return to work. As of October 30, 2021, the IRS had a backlog of over 2.7 million unprocessed amended returns. Amended returns are now averaging more than 20 weeks to process according to the IRS, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service the wait time is significantly longer. These delays are causing significant harm to the American people and causing delays with other federal services.
The Taxpayer Advocate Service is unable to open new cases due to the backlog. Americans rely on services from agencies like the Taxpayer Advocate Service to resolve problems with the IRS and to ensure that they are treated fairly when dealing with the IRS.
The IRS must return to full in-person work in order to end the backlog. Please provide answers to the following questions by December 28, 2021.
1. When does the IRS plan to return to full in-person work?
2. What is the current in-person operating capacity of the IRS?
3. What is the IRS doing to end the backlog of unprocessed amended returns?
4. How long will it take the IRS to process the unprocessed amended returns?