How The IRS Layoffs Could Affect Your Tax Refund
Recent IRS layoffs may delay or cause a taxpayer’s error in refunds, but prompt and timely and promptly submitting tax refunds can prevent problems.
About 7,000 IRS employees were fired Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s mission to reduce federal spending. This is about 7% of the total IRS workforce, Washington Post Report. Most of the cuts affect the law enforcement and collection parts.
Additionally, the federal recruitment freeze initiated by Trump at the opening ceremony may have affected the number of seasonal employees available. According to the U.S. Office of Government Responsibility, these workers support the agency during the tax season, accounting for 11 to 20% of the agency’s workforce from 2013 to 2022.
“It’s not only a delay in refund processing, but you may receive more benefits, or you may receive less refunds, and if you do, you want to double check it out because it could be an IRS error,” he said. Stranger said.
Archive earlier than electronically
Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals, said the best way to avoid tax rebate delays or errors is to submit returns electronically. Since your tax returns will be processed automatically, this may reduce the time and errors that may occur compared to paper submissions.
“If most taxpayers pass through the preparation of taxpayers, this could be an incident for most taxpayers,” Osaben said. “Make sure their information is accurate. Verify the social security number of everyone in the family.”
In addition, filing a tax return before the April 15 deadline can significantly reduce the time it takes to receive a tax refund. If a large number of tax returns appear at the same time, this may cause the system to shut down.
“The normal expected time is 14 to 21 days of direct deposit,” Osaben said. “Of course, if there is a system error, it may slow down and employees come in and fix those errors.”
Osaben said patience is the key. Rather than calling IRS, use the agency’s online “My Refund” tool to Track your refund Quickly.