The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said taxpayers will have the option to go paperless for agency correspondence by 2024 Filing Season.
Additionally, the agency noted it endeavors to achieve tax return paperless processing by Filing Season 2025.
The IRS Paperless Processing Initiative will eliminate up to 200 million pieces of paper annually. The endeavor would also cut processing times in half and expedite refunds by several weeks.
The IRS indicated it receives about 76 million paper tax returns and forms, in addition to annually receiving 125 million pieces of correspondence, notice responses and non-tax forms.
Limited capability to accept the forms digitally or digitize paper it receives has prevented the IRS from delivering the world-class service taxpayers deserve. The agency has more than one billion historical documents costing $40 million per year to store.
According to the IRS, through the new initiative during Filing Season 2024, taxpayers will be able to digitally submit all correspondence, non-tax forms and responses to notices; taxpayers will be able to e-File 20 additional tax forms; and at least 20 of the most used non-tax forms will be available in digital, mobile friendly formats that make them easy for taxpayers to complete and submit.
The IRS indicated by Filing Season 2025, an additional 150 of the most used non-tax forms will be available in digital, mobile friendly formats; IRS will digitally process all paper-filed tax and information returns; and up to one billion historical documents will be digitized – providing taxpayers access to their data while ultimately saving IRS approximately $40 million in annual storage costs.