Tax Day was just the beginning as some say getting help from IRS is 'almost impossible'

Don’t tell accountant Mary Jo Armstrong that tax deadline day has passed. She’s still got months of work ahead of her.

“We’ve probably had five people who’ve brought things in today,” Armstrong, owner at MJ Cares in Harrison, said Monday morning.

In addition to some typical last-minute filings, understaffing at the IRS and the expectation of losing a steady stream of its workers to retirement in the next few years has made this tax season a bit more challenging for local tax offices.

Armstrong said the IRS has been a little less responsive this tax season, and getting help from them can be tough.

“You can’t get them to answer the phone at all, it seems,” she said. “You’re on hold forever, and then you just get hung up on. Getting ahold of them has been almost impossible.”

The annual National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress, released in January, noted the IRS continues to struggle to hire qualified candidates in key areas, despite access to $80 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding to help build up its workforce and modernize its technical systems.

The IRS hired more than 30,000 employees during the 2023 fiscal year, but many of those hires are meant to offset the fact that nearly 40% of the IRS workforce will be eligible for retirement at some point during the next five years, according to U.S. Treasury officials.

The official deadline to file income taxes in the United States is April 15 — unless you are filing for an extension.

Armstrong said she’s got plenty of those as well.

“I want to get them done quickly so that we’re not doing taxes all summer,” she said with a laugh.

An extension gives taxpayers until mid-October to fully file their taxes.

Amended filing

In Delmont, Kline’s Tax Consultants owner Marjorie Kline said her biggest challenge has been changes to clients’ tax status.

“It’s the same problem we have every year,” Kline said. “The financial companies give out their 1099 forms and then turn around and send a corrected one. So we’ve done a lot of returns already, and now a lot of people want those amended. The financial institutions are terrible when it comes to sending out corrected information.”

In addition, Kline has had a few cases of pneumonia in her office this tax season.

“Missing a day here is like missing a whole week of work,” she said. “We’ve been crazy this year. My clients have been very understanding.”

David Luczak is president of Pallas Associates, a tax prep office in Monroeville, and also sits on the Pennsylvania state boards for the National Association of Tax Professionals and National Association of Enrolled Agents.

His office was plenty busy Monday.

“A lot of people waited until the last minute, and I have quite a few people on extensions,” Luczak said. “I’ve been doing 12- and 14-hour days for the past week trying to catch up.”

Pallas Associates also handles resolution work — helping people who haven’t filed their taxes for several years or who owe a significant amount in back taxes.

“We try and resolve those issues and help folks make payments on their taxes,” he said.

Luczak and Armstrong said they’ve seen a bump in the number of new businesses filing taxes.

“There are a lot of small businesses opening,” Luczak said.

Armstrong said her clientele has increased steadily over the past five years, including new businesses.

“This year we really had a lot more business clients, and there’s a lot I’m still working on,” she said.

Delayed response

Understaffing at the federal agency appears to have affected the general turnaround time for tax returns. Luczak said he used to be able to submit an electronic return and check back to see its status within 10 minutes.

“Now it takes a couple hours,” he said. “They’re a little slower than normal. I’m sure they’re swamped.”

The IRS began processing tax returns Jan. 29 and had issued nearly 67 million income tax refunds through April 5. That is down a little more than 3% compared with the same period last year, according to IRS statistics from April 5.