IRS Delays in Processing Amended Tax Returns Are Impacting TAS’s Ability to Assist Taxpayers

In a blog post, the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) has discussed the IRS’s backlog of unprocessed amended returns and how that situation is negatively impacting the Taxpayer Advocate Service’s (TAS) ability to help taxpayers get refunds they are waiting for.

According to the NTA, on October 30, 2021, the IRS had a backlog of over 2.7 million unprocessed amended returns. The IRS claims the current processing time for these returns is about 20 weeks. The NTA, however, says that TAS cases indicate it is taking the IRS “considerably longer than 20 weeks” to process these returns. Updated information on IRS operations and backlogs, can be found here

Generally, TAS doesn’t accept cases in which it can’t meaningfully expedite or improve case resolution for taxpayers. And, TAS can’t expedite or improve case resolution for taxpayers whose amended returns haven’t been processed. Therefore: 

• TAS will no longer accept new cases where the only issue is the processing of an individual or business amended return.  

• TAS will accept new cases when the primary issue meets the case acceptance criteria in Internal Revenue Manual 13.1.7, TAS Case Criteria, even if the secondary issue includes processing an individual or business amended return.

The NTA recommends that taxpayers use Where’s My Amended Return to track the status of their amended return. According to the NTA, it takes about three weeks after an amended return is filed for it to appear in the tool.

Where’s My Amended Return can provide the status of amended returns for the current tax year and up to three prior tax years. One caveat, the tool cannot provide the status of amended returns with a foreign address, business tax amended returns, carryback applications, and amended returns processed by a specialized unit. 

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