Over the past few years and throughout the pandemic, there has been no shortage of complaints and criticism about the performance of the Internal Revenue Service.
The backlog of unprocessed returns has led to delayed refunds, and taxpayers are often unable to have their phone calls answered. The situation does not improve when visiting IRS offices in person — it can take hours of waiting to have simple issues resolved.
In addition, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released in May shows that although tax audits have declined across income levels over the past decade, audit rates dropped the most for higher-income taxpayers. The report's finding that earned income tax credit claimants have higher-than-average audit rates has infuriated advocates for the refundable tax credit, popular with lower-income working taxpayers with children, and raised equality concerns.
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