The Congressional delegation from the state of Mississippi is urging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to clear a large backlog of 2019 tax returns before the 2020 tax return deadline.
The delegation made the request to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig following a surge in calls and correspondence from constituents in Mississippi who have had issues filing their 2020 taxes and receiving the refunds owed to them from 2019 and 2020.
“We have received reports that around 260,000 notices of failure to file, or CP59s, were mistakenly sent by the IRS to U.S. taxpayers, many of whom paid their returns on time and whose payments were deposited and withdrawn from their accounts, but whose payments were not matched to their returns,” the Mississippi lawmakers wrote to Rettig. “Additionally, as taxpayers begin filing their 2020 taxes, many are unable to do so because the PIN required to fill out the majority of online filings, which would be provided in their 2019 return, remains unavailable. Our offices have received a number of calls and inquiries regarding the state of their returns. The Taxpayer Advocate Service, however, is unable to handle the requests for inquiry because the returns have not been processed in any way by the IRS.”
It was signed by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), and Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Steven Palazzo (R-MS), Trent Kelly (R-MS), and Michael Guest (R-MS).
“We recognize the IRS is taking on additional responsibilities during this time, including processing the latest round of Economic Impact Payments and other COVID-19 relief measures. However, taxpayers continue to face financial uncertainty from the pandemic, and this should not be compounded by the federal government’s inability to return money lawfully owed to them,” they added.
The Mississippi lawmakers posed several questions to the commissioner for response, including the agency’s immediate and long-term plans for remedying this backlog.