WASHINGTON — IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig on Thursday said the millions of Americans whose tax returns have been caught in a processing backlog created by the pandemic, which shut down the IRS for a time, should see their refunds in the coming months.
“We would hope to be through this backlog by the summer,” Rettig told House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell, who said some 12 million returns are trapped in the IRS logjam, although Rettig says just 2.4 million were returns of individual Americans.
“I will tell you, my employees will work as hard as we can possibly work,” Rettig promised lawmakers, noting that he “sent 80,000 employees home. I shut down 511 facilities in less than two weeks,” because of pandemic concerns.
And while members praised the agency head for extending the April 15 tax filing deadline by a month to May 17, Rettig was reminded repeatedly by lawmakers that the refunds are a lifeline for some Americans devastated by the pandemic’s economic toll.
I bet you fkers got your paycheck.