You have until 11:59pm tonight to get your tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service, or file for an extension.
But, if you haven't filed you're not alone. Almost one-quarter of Americans wait until the last minute to file their taxes.
IRS employees this tax season have answered 2 million more calls, and served 100,000 more taxpayers in-person, it reported. The agency also digitized 80 times more paper forms than in 2022 and cleared the backlog of unprocessed 2022 individual tax returns.
New IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, sworn in earlier this month, promised that to use the new $80 billion infusion of cash over the next 10 years to help the federal tax collector become faster, more tech-savvy and provide “real-world improvements” to taxpayers.
“We’re trying to improve services dramatically,” said Wally Adeyemo, Treasury’s deputy secretary at an Urban Institute event on Monday.
Next month, the IRS will release the first in a series of reports looking into how it might be done.
The possibility of an electronic free-file system operated by Washington is being celebrated by some taxpayer advocates who for years have said that would reflect good governance and well serve taxpayers. Critics voice skepticism about the IRS taking on the dual roles of both tax collector and tax preparer, arguing that the new service could create a power imbalance between taxpayers and the government.
