IRS should stop fines for taxpayers caught in backlog, Congress says

IRS should stop fines for taxpayers caught in backlog, Congress says

The IRS had more than 10 million unprocessed tax forms as of December.

Published: Jan. 27, 2022, 6:39 a.m.The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, 2021)APTribune News ServiceBy Laura Davison, Bloomberg News (TNS)WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is under pressure from a large group of lawmakers to stop penalties and pause automated collections from taxpayers whose returns have been caught in a processing backlog.

In a letter signed by at least 216 Republicans and Democrats from both the House and Senate, the legislators urged the IRS to streamline the processes for resolving penalty-abatement issues and amended tax returns. They also asked for a halt in automated collections until the agency could work through some of the backlog and give relief to taxpayers who had already paid at least 70% of their taxes.