The IRS’s backlog since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been extraordinarily difficult for tax professionals to work with. To add some context, according to the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate, as of May 2021, the IRS:
- Still had over 30 million returns requiring manual processing, which represents roughly 20% of all returns filed to that point; and
- Had only answered about 2% of the roughly 70 million phone calls coming into its 1040 telephone lines during the filing season.
Additionally, any taxpayer or tax professional who has tried to file a power of attorney since the start of the pandemic knows that the IRS is taking many weeks to process what used to take 48 hours.
With these difficulties in mind, it is much easier for our clients to set up their own individual IRS accounts and access a lot of information directly.
Clients who create their own IRS account can take the following actions:
- Make payments online;
- See payment plan options and request a plan via Online Payment Agreement;
- Access their tax records via Get Transcript;
- Approve or reject authorizations from tax professionals; and
- Digitally sign Power of Attorneys created by their tax professional.
Clients can also view:
- The total amount they owe, including balance details by year;
- Their payment history and any scheduled or pending payments;
- Key information from their most recent tax return;
- Payment plan details, if they have one;
- Digital copies of select notices from the IRS;
- Their economic impact payments, if any;
- Their address on file; and
- Authorization requests from tax professionals.
Sign In or Create a New Account here.
Thank you for your ongoing confidence and trust.