The magnitude of the IRS backlog of unprocessed returns is “unprecedented,” said the National Taxpayer Advocate, Erin Collins. Since the start of the pandemic, millions of taxpayers have seen their refunds delayed. To rectify the problem, Collins wants to see the IRS’s “antiquated” system modernized, including the use of scanning technology such as 2-D barcoding used by retail stores. By reducing errors caused by manual data entry, this is expected to save “tens of millions of dollars” in labor cost. Collins has directed the IRS to work with tax return software companies to incorporate barcodes by 2023. Also suggested is the use of optical character recognition to read all paper returns. #irs #news #irsbacklog #taxpayer
