2020 has been the year of remote work, and that extended to the IRS, as well.
The agency closed its offices earlier in the year when the coronavirus outbreak began. But now, as 2020 winds to a close, the IRS still has a major backlog of mail on its hands, and that includes an estimated 1 million tax returns that it's yet to process.
Many tax filers submit their returns electronically, but some opt to go old school and file paper returns, instead. In a normal year, that's not a huge problem, though it generally means having to wait about twice as long to get a refund (six weeks, versus three weeks for taxes filed electronically).
But in 2020, it's a nightmare for both the people who are waiting for their returns to be processed and the IRS itself, which has an estimated 3 million pieces of unopened mail to grapple with.
As such, many people are still awaiting refunds from returns submitted months ago.
And while the IRS has pledged to pay interest on overdue tax refunds this year, that may not be enough to soften the blow of having to wait on that money during a pandemic.
Lawmakers are still trying to come to terms on a coronavirus relief package to follow late March's CARES Act, which allowed for an initial round of $1,200 stimulus checks. It's too soon to know when a second stimulus deal will be signed and whether it will actually include a follow-up round of direct payments.
That said, the IRS has a system set up to send out stimulus payments automatically, whereas paper returns have to be sorted manually, so there may not be a huge impact if a second stimulus round is approved.
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