Watchdog Bares IRS Failures: From Snail-Paced Returns to Identity Theft Woes

Despite getting billions of dollars in extra funding to help meet its pledge to provide taxpayers with “top-quality service,” the IRS is failing to measure up to expectations in a number of areas, including taxpayer identity theft and amended tax return processing, a watchdog says. Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate at the Taxpayer Advocate Service, released her 2023 Annual Report to Congress on Wednesday, on balance giving the IRS a passing grade. “Overall, the magnitude of successes exceeded the areas of weakness in 2023,” Ms. Collins wrote in the report’s preface. The watchdog gave the IRS plenty of bad marks, however, including for things like “unconscionable” delays in providing support to victims of tax-related identity theft or ongoing processing delays that “burden and frustrate” taxpayers....