Bob Dyer, like millions of other taxpayers, is still waiting for their IRS returns for the tax year 2020.
He was furious with the IRS since he was still waiting for a tax return owing to a backlog from the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Many are Still Waiting for Unemployment Tax Refund from the IRS
Dyer had been waiting for more than 16 months for what he estimated to be $1,027 from the IRS and $182 from the state of Ohio. Dyer has now been waiting for 21 months, and there has been no substantive news for him or millions of others.
Dyer electronically submitted his federal taxes on February 19, 2021. He owed $2,559 and mailed in a cheque, which he stated was swiftly cashed.
Dyer and other Beacon Journal and Gannett, our corporate company, employees were forced to take numerous one-week furloughs in the summer of 2020. We applied for unemployment benefits throughout those weeks of shutdown.
Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act on March 11, 2021, which allowed taxpayers to deduct up to $10,200 in unemployment compensation paid in 2020 if their modified adjusted gross income was less than $150,000.
However, taxpayers who were affected by this change were advised not to amend their returns if they had already filed. The IRS stated that it would automatically refund money – or apply the refund to tax debts – to persons who had already filed their tax returns and reported unemployment compensation as taxable income.
Dyer wrote in August to say he has received a letter addressing his query from May 17, 2022. Meanwhile, several readers have contacted to inquire whether Dyer had received any updates, as they, too, were waiting.
IRS spokesperson Bruce Friedland referred to an IRS web page that gives updates headlined “IRS Operations During COVID-19: Mission Critical Functions Continue,” which may be found at https://tinyurl.com/5ym38rmp.
Applications are Still Unprocessed
The page contains a lot of numbers and information. Here are a few highlights: As of November 4, the IRS had received 4.2 million unprocessed individual returns this year. This excludes unprocessed returns received before this year, such as the pending taxes submitted by Dyer and others in 2021.
The national taxpayer advocate is Erin Collins. According to its website, the Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent group inside the IRS that “helps taxpayers address their IRS account concerns, advocates on taxpayers’ behalf, and works towards structural reform to alleviate taxpayer problems.”
It is uncertain if the taxpayer advocate service will be able to assist people who are awaiting their 2020 jobless payouts. The website is www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov, and the phone number for the Cleveland office is 216-415-3460.
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