By Richard Rubin
WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service cranked out $267
billion in stimulus payments in about two months, faster than many
analysts expected. But challenging work lies ahead, such as opening
10 million pieces of piled-up mail and resuming a semblance of
normal taxpayer service.
The agency, already struggling with budget cuts and reduced
staff before the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, was given the
monumental task of sending stimulus payments worth $1,200 for most
adults and $500 per child to help Americans ride out the economic
slump. Despite some hitches -- like payments to dead people and
debit-card envelopes that looked to some like junk mail -- those
payments are largely complete, the government said this week.
"The IRS has taken on nearly impossible challenges and performed
many of them very well," said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top
Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Now the agency is trying to slowly reopen dozens of offices
around the country and recall thousands of workers as the July 15
tax filing deadline approaches.
"It gets tougher from here," said Mark Everson, a former IRS
commissioner.
Some major operations centers remain closed, and open ones
aren't running at full strength. Refunds are being processed more
slowly than usual, agency data indicate. Some telephone assistance
is available, but IRS officials say phone lines remain unusually
busy and they are directing people to the agency's website whenever
possible. Catching up will take time.
"If you mailed us something, especially in February, it's gonna
be a while," said Chad Hooper, an IRS worker in Philadelphia and
president of the Professional Managers Association, which
represents the agency's supervisors.
Meanwhile, the regular tax filing season continues, postponed
from the usual April 15 deadline to July 15 as part of the
coronavirus relief effort. As of May 29, the IRS had received 6.5%
fewer returns than it did last year and processed 13% percent
fewer. That suggests many people are waiting longer than usual for
refunds. Sometimes the agency's automated filters block refunds for
suspected fraud, requiring a person to check before payments are
made, even on electronically filed returns that normally yield fast
refunds.
Michael Whiteley, an unemployed chef in Rochester, N.H., said he
filed his tax return in March, expecting a refund of more than
$4,000. Instead, he got a notice from the IRS requesting
documentation to prove that his son with a different last name was
his own. Mr. Whiteley, who had already spent about $500 at H&R
Block for tax preparation, said he spent $40 on expedited mail
delivery to send follow-up documentation to the IRS in Fresno,
Calif. -- an office that isn't set to reopen until the end of
June.
"I'm still sitting here to this day, waiting," he said.
Getting back to normal will be tricky. More than half of agency
employees have been working remotely, according to the House Ways
and Means Committee. But about 30% have been on paid leave because
of the pandemic, and those who staff phone lines generally can't
work from home. The IRS had been trying to make more employees
eligible for remote work but didn't finish doing so before the
pandemic started, Mr. Hooper said.
"Having more modern systems would have been a great thing to
have prepared for prior to a thing like this," said Andrew Moylan,
executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union
Foundation, a nonprofit research group affiliated with a
conservative organization. "Expect less timeliness, less ability to
contact people, less ability to get your questions answered, more
problems that people have to sort out."
Reopening will be uneven for an agency with offices scattered
across the country. Major offices in Utah, Texas and Kentucky
reopened this week for employees who can't work from home. Next
come eight states and Puerto Rico, including campuses in Atlanta
and Fresno, and that phase could bring back as many as 12,500
workers who aren't eligible to work remotely. Offices in places
with tighter restrictions -- including Pennsylvania, Washington,
D.C., New York and Maryland -- aren't yet scheduled to reopen.
Different campuses do different types of work. Many employees
have very specialized skills handling certain types of tax returns,
creating a complicated management challenge to restore full
service.
"This is not a McDonald's where you can move a person from the
register to the to-go window," said Mr. Everson, now vice chairman
of Alliantgroup LP.
The IRS hasn't restarted services that require face-to-face
meetings with the public, such as taxpayer assistance centers and
some audit and collections operations. That is a safety concern for
taxpayers and the government. Years of hiring freezes and the
security of public-sector jobs mean the IRS has an aging workforce
that is more susceptible to Covid-19.
"Employees remain anxious about the risks posed by taking public
transportation, being in enclosed facilities with hundreds of
co-workers and whether their work stations will be consistently and
properly cleaned and disinfected," said Tony Reardon, president of
the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents front-line
IRS workers.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, in a memo to employees, said
their health and safety was the agency's priority. In a statement
to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Rettig said employees worked around
the clock in challenging circumstances to provide more than 159
million payments.
"As we continue a phased-in reopening, we will do everything
possible to accelerate our operations and enhance taxpayer services
and processing of refunds," he said.
There are other challenges. In March, the IRS announced its
"People First Initiative," suspending some enforcement and
collection through July 15 to help taxpayers struggling with
unemployment and disruption. At some point, the agency will shift
back toward enforcement.
When will that happen?
"It's going to be a judgment call," said Diana Erbsen, a lawyer
at DLA Piper in New York who is chairwoman of the agency's advisory
council. "It's not going to be an on-off switch."
Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 06, 2020 08:14 ET (12:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.