IRS Improves Some Services, Still Struggles With Paper Returns

The IRS is improving its taxpayer services but continues to fall behind on processing times for paper returns, a watchdog review found.

The agency failed to timely process individual and business tax returns received by paper during the 2024 filing season, the Government Accountability Office said in its report released Thursday. The GAO found that the IRS took an average of 20 days to process incoming paper returns, a week longer than its 13-day goal. The report said that the IRS faced a similar timeliness challenge in the 2023 filing season. It also found that the agency is still ...