The Beleagured Service

Your humble blogger is appalled by the size and scope of government. Originally this reaction was based on venerable philosophical arguments, i.e., people grow dependent and passive, they cannot think or do anything for themselves, they rely on someone to come to their rescue, etc. But now that we live in a society where there are more safety nets than our grandparents ever dreamed of, the bigger problem is obvious: government simply cannot deliver the functions that it has been tasked to perform.

Case in point: the Internal Revenue Service.

Fun fact: the top half of the IRS logo is the "IRS Eagle",
which I initially thought was an image of a forlorn
taxpayer dropping a return into a mailbox.

This past March, although it was at the time twelve months since it had been filed, we decided not to panic over the IRS' delay in processing Mom's 2019 tax return. The coronavirus had shuttered the IRS' processing centers, and weekly checking of the app showed that the Service had received the paperwork.

In a letter dated September 15, 2021, the IRS stated that it had received the 2019 4th-quarter estimated tax payment on February 3, 2020. The check cleared Mom's bank on February 5, 2020, and it took the IRS 19 months to post it to her account. (Private companies get written up by auditors if receipts aren't posted immediately; standards are different for government agencies.)

Mom will be getting her 2019 refund sometime in November, 2021. According to the letter

If you don't owe other taxes, penalties, interest, or legal obligations we're required to collect, we'll send you a refund of your overpayment within six to eight weeks.

We are so grateful!

I had held off as long as I could but finally mailed Mom's 2020 return because the October 15, 2021 extension deadline was imminent.

Millions of taxpayers were affected by 2019 processing delays, and the backup has affected 2020. The IRS had its worst-performing season last year.

“Paper returns have piled up — there are 5.5 million Form 1040s and over 4 million business returns that have been opened but not processed. The goal is that by year-end, the paper returns will be processed. However, there are an additional 4 million returns anticipated by mid-October,” he said...

And it’s more than just having the money to hire additional personnel, he suggested: “Even if they had the money and had the people willing to work, they couldn’t just snap their fingers and put 50, 100 or 500 people to work manning the phone lines. It takes at least 12 to 18 weeks to train someone to answer and assist callers. They have to understand the systems, and be able to understand and interpret what’s going on.”

In some cases they need to have people with better knowledge or information to help on practitioner lines, [tax chair of CPA Practitioners Stephen] Mankowski observed. “But in a lot of cases, it’s easier to explain the issues to a practitioner than it is to taxpayers,” he said. “There’s a lot of training that is necessary to have someone able to assist all levels of taxpayers."

The IRS cannot perform its basic functions correctly, yet every year Congress keeps loading new laws and new requirements on the beleagured Service. It makes one wonder if those who advocate that government provide more goods and services have actually managed any organizations--public or private--that do so.