PHOENIX — Did you get your tax refund yet?
If not, did you get any answers about when you might get it?
ABC15 viewer Tom says he can't get his refund or an answer. "I did it this year the same way I did it for the past 60 years," Tom said.
For him, that means filing a paper tax return and mailing it in instead of filing electronically.
"I don't know how, I'm not a computer genius, believe me," Tom stated.
That may have meant a small delay in the past. But this year, Tom says he's been waiting 4 months.
"All I want is an assurance they got it, it's being looked at in time and just give me some kind of time frame," he added.
A National Taxpayer Advocate report shows a backlog of 21 million tax returns.
The report says the IRS is just now finishing up 2021 paper returns and will start 2022 paper filings.
COVID-19 issues and poor funding are being blamed for the mess.
A lot of viewers contacted Let Joe Know saying they want those refunds and are frustrated about the lack of any help to find out what's going on.
Another ABC15 viewer, Margaret, says she "cannot obtain any info at all."
When Terry goes to the IRS website, it says "consult your tax advisor. Yeah, right."
And Constance says "I can't get a live person to tell me what to do now."
"It says you have no record or your record is pending and they give you a telephone number to call and you get the same information," Tom said.
According to the Taxpayer Advocate, out of 72 million customer service calls to the IRS through April, only 7.5 million were answered.
The average wait time on hold was 29 minutes.
The report says the IRS reassigned employees to the most urgent needs and that included telephone customer service representatives.
Its "Where's My Refund" online feature didn't provide "explain status delays" until May.
Tom just wants information about his return.
"Tell me don't worry about it, we got it. You'll get it in time," he stated.
While the IRS is hiring 10,000 new employees, the report says as of April, they've only met 12% of the goal.
In response, the IRS says it's "running ahead of tax return processing compared to a year ago" and they continue "to make substantial progress."
We are still working to get answers for Tom about his return.
Clickhere to read the full Taxpayer Advocate Report.
Read the full IRS response to the Taxpayer Advocate Report.
How to contact a local IRS office.
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