Watchdog Warns of IRS’s Continued Customer Service Struggles (1)

The IRS is continuing to struggle with clearing its backlog of tax returns and answering taxpayers’ phone calls, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said in a report issued Wednesday.

In the week ending May 27, the IRS had 21.3 million individual and business paper returns awaiting processing, which was more than the 20 million returns awaiting processing at a similar point last year, according to Collins’s midyear report to Congress.

The report comes as the IRS has been pushing to reach its goal of clearing the backlog by the end of the year, an effort that has involved ...