Treasury Says IRS Funding Of $80 Billion Will Boost Response in 2024

(CTN News) – The Treasury Department reported Monday that the IRS has easily exceeded targets after receiving $80 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act for tax season 2024.

A million more calls were handled during the 2026 filing season, compared to 2023, and the federal tax agency exceeded its 85% target for phone service.

The “Where’s My Refund” online tool was used 275 million times, and walk-in assistance at 70 centers rose by 170,000 — with special hours at the centers. Until 4 p.m. today. As a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS built on the progress made during filing season 2023 and delivered world-class service in 2024.

In 2022, the IRS only served 15% of taxpayers and millions of refunds were delayed for months due to lack of resources, Treasury said. In spite of a 13% increase in demand, the IRS beat Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s goal of five minutes. They answered 17% more calls through April 6 than they did in Filing Season 2023 despite shorter call wait times.

Overall, the IRS answered nearly 3 million more calls than it did prior to getting the new IRA resources in 2022. The 1.4 million hours saved on hold were achieved by giving 97% of eligible taxpayers a “call back” option at the beginning of the call when the wait time exceeded 15 minutes.

Over 200,000 people received free tax prep help from volunteers through 52 new or reopened walk-in help centers, well over the 8,500 hours targeted. Taxpayers can also get detailed refund information through IRS’ new mobile refund service, which is compatible with mobile devices.

Taxpayers can verify their identity and tax return information as well as verify dates in real-time with the new service. There used to be only a standard message and FAQs. Paperless Processing Initiative is also getting better, enabling digital responses to correspondence and e-filing of 13 more tax forms, up from nine when it was launched last year.

Since April 12, 2024, the IRS has received nearly 900,000 responses via the online tool. As a result, over 94% of individuals won’t have to send mail to the IRS.” Non-tax forms let taxpayers request information about identity theft and proof of eligibility for key credits and deductions.

Upon reaching the milestone, up to 125 million paper documents will be submitted digitally every year, with 4.4 million so far. In 2023, the IRS expects to process 128.7 million individual tax returns, starting on Jan. 29.

Software providers and tax professionals who prepare electronic returns were allowed to file ahead of the season, but processing wouldn’t start until Jan. 29.

Deputy Commissioner Danny Werfel praised what he called a “marked improvement” in IRS operations, saying employees were “working hard to use new funding to simplify the tax filing process for taxpayers.”

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