OPINION:
In 2024, it took the Internal Revenue Service an average of 676 days to resolve an identity theft case, five times longer than the 129 days it took in 2020. In IRS identity theft cases, a criminal files a tax return using someone’s information to steal tax refund money. Addressing this problem is key to why President Trump’s return to in-person work executive order is necessary.
Basic tax casework isn’t getting done for the American people. It somehow got even worse after congressional liberals in 2022 supersized the IRS with billions of additional dollars.
Getting everybody back into the office will help the IRS focus on taxpayer services. Many of their duties require vast collaboration and in-person work. It’s time for IRS employees to clear the backlog of stolen identity cases sitting on their desks.
In 2024, Biden-appointed IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel remarked during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing that 50% of employees were working remotely, responding to questioning from Rep. Ron Estes, Kansas Republican.
Mr. Estes asked: “So how can somebody in a remote location be handling these tax returns? That just seems to me that it’s not doing the job that needs to be done to help service American constituents.”
This lack of service is evident in the IRS’s glacial pace of resolving what are formally known as identity theft victim assistance cases.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a shock in identity theft victims who filed case claims as hefty tax relief benefits sparked an increase in fraud. Thus, an increase in days to resolution may seem reasonable in the 2021 fiscal year, as receipts jumped from about 96,000 to 329,000. What is not reasonable is that resolution days have been skyrocketing since this peak in 2021, hitting nearly 22 months, while identity theft receipts declined.
Complicated IRS casework is best solved when everyone is in the office.
Mr. Werfel seems to have put off addressing the productivity concerns that Mr. Estes and many others brought up. Mr. Werfel refers to the delays as “the agency’s largest service gap,” yet the problem worsened.
According to Erin Collins’ 2023 annual report with Congress, identity theft resolution delays were ranked No. 6 in the IRS’s most serious problems in 2023. Ms. Collins is the “voice of the taxpayer” and director of the Taxpayer Advocate Service, working to ensure fair treatment within the tax system.
Despite Ms. Collins’ warnings, resolution days increased in 2024. Ms. Collins called these delays “unconscionable” and one of the taxpayers’ top two problems.
It is questionable why approximately 57% of the funds, about $46 billion, from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to the IRS, are allocated to their “enforcement” account while only 4% goes to “taxpayer services.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, condemned the return to in-person work memorandum, stating that remote work opportunities are essential for employee recruitment and retention. But what about task completion and efficiency?
American families and taxpayers are patiently waiting at the door for their much-needed tax refunds. Once locked out of their IRS accounts, victims can face dire consequences. From destroyed credit histories and lost bank accounts to even false arrests, these victims have been waiting on the IRS for nearly two years to have their livelihoods restored.
Small businesses suffer, too, as the threat of business identity theft grows. Companies face hard financial loss and legal issues as fraudsters drain their accounts and take on loans in their name. As these businesses go to pay their quarterly estimated taxes, they struggle to access their accounts and accurately report their income as criminals ransack their accounts.
As federal employees remain home, taxpayer casework suffers. Mr. Trump’s return to in-person work may be what the IRS needs to ease taxpayer suffering.
• Diana Esters is a federal policy associate at Americans for Tax Reform.
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