Taxpayers face overloaded IRS as filing season opens Monday

By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. taxpayers, brace yourselves because tax filing season starts Monday and you can expect the task to be more cumbersome than usual this year. That’s due to an overloaded and understaffed IRS workforce, as well as complications from pandemic-related programs. White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the IRS has “unacceptable backlogs” and she says the customer service that people are receiving “is not what the American public deserves.” There will be plenty of new issues to navigate this year. For example, individuals who are eligible to claim the child tax credit and have gotten advance payments throughout the year may get a smaller refund than they’d normally see.