The Internal Revenue Service says that beefed up customer support is leading to fewer hiccups this tax submitting season. More than 71 million Americans have already filed taxes this spring.

Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Images

cover caption

toggle caption

Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Images

The Internal Revenue Service says that beefed up customer support is leading to fewer hiccups this tax submitting season. More than 71 million Americans have already filed taxes this spring.

Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Images

Have you finished your taxes but? April fifteenth is lower than a month away.

So far, the IRS says this yr’s tax submitting season goes easily. Paper returns are not piling up in authorities cafeterias. And annoyed callers aren’t giving up on un-answered cellphone traces.

The company is investing billions of {dollars} to enhance customer support, and to go after rich tax cheats. And the IRS needs individuals to find out about that.

“Sometimes it’s the little things,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel informed an viewers at American University final week. “Like that this filing season we added a call-back function on our main 1-800 number, ending the era of taxpayers being required to stay on hold listening to elevator music.”

Here are three issues to find out about this yr’s tax season.

No extra backlog

As of March 15, the IRS had obtained more than 71 million tax returns — about half the full it expects by the April 15 deadline — and processed 98% of them. It helps that just about all of the returns are being filed electronically this yr, which cuts down on paper delays.

About 7 in 10 individuals submitting taxes up to now are owed refunds. And the common refund is $3109 — 6% increased than final yr.

Even when every thing runs easily, although, the tax collector is a punching bag. Commissioner Werfel opened his speech at American University with a video clip from the Simpsons, by which Homer is heard loudly booing the IRS.

Werfel hopes improved service will assist. The company employed 1000’s of extra phone operators final yr to assist reply questions from taxpayers. It’s additionally opened dozens of recent walk-in facilities across the nation. And it is beefing up its web site so extra individuals can discover info there.

Experimenting with a brand new free submitting service

This yr, the IRS is testing a new program that permits taxpayers to file digital returns straight with the federal government without spending a dime, bypassing industrial tax preparers. It’s a limited pilot program, accessible in solely 12 states and solely to individuals with comparatively easy tax returns. The formal launch was lower than two weeks in the past, and since then greater than 50,000 individuals have tried it out.

That’s tiny in comparison with, say, TurboTax, which ready 45 million returns final yr. But if the Direct File pilot is profitable, the IRS hopes to broaden it, regardless of stiff opposition from industrial tax prep corporations and their allies in Congress.

“Nothing is free,” Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., informed Werfel throughout a Congressional listening to final month. “I don’t think you should be wasting your millions of dollars when the private industry is doing a good job.”

The IRS commissioner has mentioned repeatedly that if individuals like utilizing industrial software program or having an accountant do their taxes, that is superb. Direct File is only one extra device.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Daniel Werfel testifies earlier than the House Ways and Means Committee within the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 15, 2024 in Washington, DC. Werfel testified about enhancements on the IRS for the reason that company was budgeted $80 billion final yr.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

cover caption

toggle caption

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Daniel Werfel testifies earlier than the House Ways and Means Committee within the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 15, 2024 in Washington, DC. Werfel testified about enhancements on the IRS for the reason that company was budgeted $80 billion final yr.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The goal is to provide taxpayers with options,” Werfel mentioned. “And what we heard from taxpayers — and we heard it pretty loudly — was that there was an interest in having an option where they could file directly with the IRS for free.”

There could possibly be large financial savings for taxpayers. The common individual spends about $140 a yr simply making ready their taxes.

Cracking down on rich tax cheats

For years, the IRS was starved for assets, so a lot of taxes went uncollected. But underneath the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats allocated $80 billion for the tax collector over a decade. Some of that cash is being spent to go after rich people and corporations which have averted paying the taxes they owe.

This yr the IRS launched audits into the probably improper use of company jets. It’s concentrating on billionaires with delinquent tax payments. And it is zeroing in on 125,000 rich people who did not even file tax returns for the final six years.

“We will not allow these higher-income individuals to fail to do their basic civic duty of filing a tax return and paying what they owe,” Werfel mentioned.

Congressional Republicans maintain chipping away on the IRS price range. They’ve already trimmed the $80 billion right down to $60 billion. In phrases of the federal price range, that is counter-productive, since each greenback spent on tax enforcement returns $2 to $6 in extra income.

By making a splash with its enforcement actions, the IRS hopes to discourage others from attempting to dodge their tax obligations. It additionally needs to guarantee everybody who’s submitting their taxes this spring that others are paying their fair proportion.