unprocessed tax returns

As the IRS works through millions of backlogged files, they are also stepping up its game to get through more tax returns faster, now that the 2022 tax season has ended. Hiring Spree The first thing the IRS is doing includes a large-scale hiring effort. In April, MarketWatch reported that the IRS is looking to hire 5,000 people in the near future. Many of the positions are entry-level, which means applicants don’t need prior experience working in the government or tax and financial sectors. So far, they have made more than 2,500 conditional job offers. And those 5,000 new hires this year are expected to be met with an additional 5,000 in 2023. To expedite this process, lawmakers have given the agency the power to complete the hiring process in as little as 30-45 days, to help get people-oriented and into their roles quickly. As of late March, the IRS still had 7.2 million unprocessed tax returns, including 2.7 million unprocessed tax returns received in the tax year 2021. By March 31, the number of unprocessed returns was down to about 5 million total. The speed with which the IRS is working through the backlog can be attributed, in part, to a new error resolution function that greatly cuts down on the number of pending cases and helps tie up other loose ends. Voice & Chatbots We also recently talked about the IRS’ efforts to implement voice and chatbots to aid in the record-breaking number of calls they were receiving during the 2022 tax season. With more than 3 million calls per day during the height of tax season, automated solutions are the only way the IRS can even begin to manage that customer call volume. And even with the new hiring goals, they have rolled out, there are still lots of people who call and have simple questions that can be cleared by artificial intelligence. Since the pandemic, many institutions, even the oldest and least technologically inclined organizations within the federal government, have seen how much the …

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