The Internal Revenue Service is failing to process millions of tax refunds in a timely manner due to staffing shortages, as it continues to struggle to bring on desperately needed employees, according to the agency’s inspector general.
As of mid-March, IRS had onboarded just 9.5% of the nearly 5,500 submission processing staff it hopes to hire for the filing season, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in a report released on a Thursday. The agency is still short about 5,000 employees in that position alone. It has found more success in hiring for accounts management—workers who handle taxpayer interactions, including by answering calls—filling 77% of its vacancies. Still, the IG said IRS is nearly 1,200 employees short of where it wants to be.
