GREENSBORO, N.C. — A recent Twitter post from a U.S. Treasury worker shows an IRS cafeteria packed with paper tax returns. The entire room is filled.
According to the IRS, they’re making progress on the 2021 tax returns. You read that right. The IRS received 4.7 million paper returns and they've processed 4.5 million, which means as of June 10, 2022, 200,000 returns were untouched.
That's right 200,000 paper returns from 2021 are still untouched.
“Manual returns are still opened by hand, you know and that's the sad thing, opening them by hand, keying them in by hand, which opens up to the human error,” said Kevin Robinson, President-elect of the NC Society of Accountants.
Seriously, an IRS worker takes the paper return and puts the numbers on the paper into the computer program. It's archaic.
The IRS is hiring more people to do this, your 2020 paper tax return and refund may just be sitting there, waiting for people and better technology. So, what's the answer if you’re looking for a status report?
“The simple thing would be to say call the IRS or go to Where’s My Refund, but it's almost pointless to go that route. Instead, set up an online account and it should show activity that is going on,” said Robinson.
I know, most folks filed a paper return because they didn't want to mess with the online stuff.
Unfortunately, you’re not going to get someone on the line or in person, so, get a family member or friend to help you--- setting up an online account is your best bet for finding out what's going on with her paper return.