One photo of an IRS cafeteria overstuffed with paper shows why you haven't gotten your refund check yet — and just how underfunded the agency is
insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan) - Tuesday
The IRS is underfunded and understaffed, and had to deal with new pandemic responsibilities.
The result has been a massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, many of them on paper.
A photo from the agency's Austin facility shows just how much paper the IRS is dealing with.
The IRS is still full of paper.
The agency has been contending with a historic backlog of unprocessed tax returns amidst new pandemic responsibilities, understaffing, and underfunding. The result: A massive build-up of unprocessed tax returns, many of which belong to Americans who have been waiting on refund checks.
Natasha Sarin, a tax policy and implementation counselor at the Treasury Department, shared a photo on Twitter of the cafeteria at the IRS's Austin site. In it, the room is "overrun" with paper returns awaiting employees.
"There's no question that strategically starving the IRS of resources shortchanges American taxpayers," Sarin said in a comment to Insider. "Dedicated IRS employees working through the enormous paper backlog are doing so with near-obsolete technology, and 1970s level staffing. It's time to deliver the sustainable resources for a modernized IRS every American can depend on."
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