Perspective: The real reason the IRS is behind in processing tax returns
“The IRS has been reviewing bar coding and other viable options with our tax industry partners, who are critical to our tax return processing efforts,” the agency said in a statement.Olson said she had conversations with IRS leadership about using 2D bar code scanning back in 2004, when she was national taxpayer advocate. At the time, the agency did have this technology and was using it to scan some IRS forms.
“That thudding sound is my head hitting the desk, both back then and now,” Olson said in an interview.— in which she writes about failures at the IRS, including the missed opportunity of scanning technology.There are two types of scanning technology the agency could use — 2D bar-coding like you see on products you buy at the supermarket, and optical character recognition . There are, of course, kinks that would need to be worked out. With OCR, certain digits can be scanned incorrectly.
Having employees transcribe returns is an incredible misuse of their time. They could instead be put on the phone lines to help weary taxpayers. Olson said that with 2D bar-coding, upon receiving a paper return, the agency could convert the information into digital form and allow the return to be treated the same as an electronically filed return.I can sympathize with the IRS’s employees. They have faced a monumental task over the past two years because of the pandemic, including issuing millions of stimulus payments.
But come on. Where’s the visionary leadership to push for the scanning technology that could have mitigated the situation the agency finds itself in right now?“There are lots of problems that the IRS has that are not easily solvable,” Olson said. “But really, this is so solvable, and it was solvable back in 2004.
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