For IRS, backlogs and identity theft still problems despite funding boost: Watchdog

abcnews.go.com:

The IRS is still too slow to process amended tax returns, answer taxpayer phone calls and resolve identity theft cases, according to an independent watchdog within the agency

WASHINGTON — The IRS is still too slow in processing amended tax returns, answering taxpayer phone calls and resolving identity theft cases, according to an independent watchdog within the agency.

The federal tax collector needs to improve its processing and taxpayer correspondence issues despite a massive boost in funding provided by the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, according to an annual report Wednesday to Congress from Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers’ rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

The report serves as a reality check of sorts as IRS leaders say the funding boost is producing big improvements in services to taxpayers. GOP critics, meanwhile, are trying try to claw back some of the money and painting the agency as an over-zealous enforcer of the tax code.

The IRS is experiencing “extraordinary delays” in assisting identity theft victims, taking nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported cases, which the report calls “unconscionable" since a delay in receiving a refund can worsen financial hardships.

Additionally, the backlog of unprocessed amended returns has quadrupled from 500,000 in 2019 to 1.9 million in October last year. And taxpayer correspondence cases have more than doubled over the same period, from 1.9 million to 4.3 million, according to the report.

The report also says IRS employees answered only 35% of all calls received, despite the agency claiming 85%. The IRS doesn't include calls where the taxpayer hangs up before being placed into a calling queue.

And while the agency