http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/IRS-Commissioner-Shulman-Addresses-Tax-Delays-62087-1.html
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman warned Thursday of a delayed tax season next year unless Congress resolves questions over the alternative minimum tax patch and other tax extender items, and talked about the tax refund delays this tax season.
" I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that in the first few weeks of the tax filing season, we experienced some delays in processing a subset of e-filed returns,” Shulman said in his prepared remarks for a hearing before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommitee. “These were temporary issues that affected a subset of taxpayers who filed in late January and early February, and the issues were resolved by mid-February. And, even with the delays, the IRS was generally delivering refunds in our normal 10- to 21-day time frame. I recognize that this group of taxpayers encountered delays this filing season and we regret the inconveniences caused.”
However, Shulman noted that even with the initial issues during tax season, the overall average refund timeline remained steady in fiscal year 2012 when compared to fiscal year 2011. “In other words, the delays were isolated to early issues in the filing season, and after that IRS was processing tax returns according to normal refund timelines,” he said.
Some Accounting Today readers have reported much longer delays beyond the first few weeks (see IRS Experiences Further Tax Refund Delay Problems and Tax Preparers Threatened over Tax Refund Delays).
According to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, between Jan. 17 and Jan. 26, the IRS delayed about 6 million returns because of a programming error. As a result, the GAO estimated that approximately 5.5 million refunds were delayed for about one week over what had been planned, while the IRS identified, isolated, and resolved the programming error.
The Commissioner also discussed various other topics such as AMT, the new tax preparer registration, ID theft, new technology at the Service and the IRS budget cut. Clock on the link above to read the whole article.
The refund delay really hasn't been completely solved, but it's better than earlier in the tax season.
